Toronto’s police chief says he will review the violent arrest of a suspect wanted in connection with a downtown shooting after the takedown was captured in an amateur video recording.
The video, which was obtained exclusively by CTV News, shows an officer repeatedly striking the suspect while the suspect is on the ground in a residential backyard near Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue.
Moments later, one officer is seen standing on a fence holding some kind of baton in his hand.
The suspect was taken to hospital following the arrest.
Police Chief Bill Blair said the arrest will be reviewed, but added a dangerous suspect was caught and the city is a safer place as a result.
"I think that it was a very serious crime that was committed yesterday and the officers were apprehending a very serious gunman," Blair told CTV Toronto.
"Those are very dangerous situations. Take an armed man that was just involved in a shooting someone, that's a very dangerous situation for police officers to have to deal with."
A witness told CTV Toronto that the suspect appeared to have been resisting arrest.
"The police warned the suspect several times not to resist. The suspect continued to resist, the police then suppressed the suspect and in the process the suspect was injured," he said.
President of the Toronto Police Association, Mike McCormack, said he had “no issue” with what he saw in the video of the arrest.
“We’re talking about a gunman who attempted to murder somebody in downtown Toronto,” he said. “I’ve worked with those officers personally in 51 division. They’re upstanding, professional police officers and watching that video, they did their job professionally and I have no issue with that video at all.”
The suspect is one of two men taken into custody after a man in his 20s was shot in the leg early Tuesday evening near Bloor and Sherbourne streets.
Area resident Kris Pangilinan told CTV Toronto what he saw.
"I saw the victim, he was on the floor not really yelling in pain, but you could see it in his motion that he was in pain," he said.
Police said two male suspects fled the scene in a vehicle which officers managed to stop near the intersection of Yonge Street and Davenport Road.
One of the suspects was taken into custody on the spot, however the second suspect is alleged to have sped away in the vehicle before getting into an accident near Roxborough Street.
Police said the second suspect was arrested after a brief foot chase.
The Special Investigations Unit is investigating the events leading up to the crash.
With files from CP24 and report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney
