The province’s Special Investigations Unit has been called in after a 58-year-old man was shot with sock rounds in a confrontation with police in the city’s downtown core.
It happened at a convenience store in the area of Sherbourne and Dundas streets at around 8 p.m.
Toronto police said officers saw a man with a knife chasing another man and told him to stop. According to police, the suspect approached police and officers then used a sock gun to incapacitate him.
Aftab Khuram, the store owner, told CP24 that the man who was wielding a knife is a regular customer at the store, but wouldn’t listen when people in the store tried to calm him down.
“He was not listening to us. He was screaming,” Khuram said.
A sock gun, also known as a bean-bag gun, is a weapon that fires rounds designed to be less lethal than ordinary ammunition.
The suspect was taken into custody and transported to hospital.
Toronto Paramedic Services described his injuries as serious. Police at the scene told CP24 the man’s hand was broken and said the injuries are non-life-threatening.
No other injuries were reported in connection with the incident.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency called in to investigate whenever police are involved in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault.
