A man has been arrested after reports of a person walking into traffic with a knife in hand on Monday in the Bloordale Village area.
Police received a call before 2 p.m. about a man, believed to be in his 30s, who appeared to have a buck knife around Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue. The man was walking northbound on Lansdowne Avenue toward the subway, police said.
When officers arrived on scene, they deployed a sock gun and seized the knife.
“It was a bright orange and black gun. When I saw that, I figured it probably wasn't a lethal firearm,” a witness, Conor Devitt, told CTV News Toronto on Monday evening.
The bullets used by police were fabric, according to officers, which is a less lethal way to take down suspects.
“The man was in distress and waving around a knife,” Toronto police spokesperson Jen Sidhu said. “So they resorted to a less lethal force of weapon which was a sock gun. Unfortunately it was deemed ineffective,”
Another sergeant who later arrived on scene eventually used a taser to subdue the man, police said.
The man was placed under arrest and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, although he did not sustain any injuries.
The SIU is not invoking their mandate.
