SIU provides new details after officer shot outside midtown apartment

The province’s police watchdog has released new details of an incident outside a midtown apartment building on Wednesday night that left a Toronto police officer with gunshot wounds.

The officer, a 29-year-old who has been employed with the police service for five years, was shot while conducting a robbery investigation in the area of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue.

According to investigators, officers stopped a vehicle in the area at around 5:30 p.m.

In a news release issued on Thursday morning, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said two men approached the officers and at one point, one of the men shot an officer and fled.

“A second officer discharged his firearm at the man who fled. The man was not struck,” the news release read.

Both of the suspects were subsequently arrested by police and neither suffered serious injuries, the SIU added.

The SIU, which invoked its mandate shortly after the shooting, is called in to investigate whenever police are involved in a death, serious injury, allegations of sexual assault, or the discharge of a firearm.

Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw said the injured officer sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, Demkiw added.

“We are very, very relieved to say that he is doing well,” the police chief told Newstalk 1010 on Thursday morning. “We do expect a full recovery.”

Police have not said what charges the three suspects are facing but investigators have said more information will be released on Thursday.

A woman who resides in the area said she and her daughter witnessed one of the suspects being taken into custody on Wednesday night.

“We saw a young man sitting over here against the wall in handcuffs… My daughter was just coming home from work from Yonge and Eglinton. She heard all of the fire alarms and the police and when she came home, she saw the boy actually being cuffed. And he was quite young,” she said.

“It’s terrible. This is historically a safe neighbourhood so it is very disturbing.”

With files from CP24.com’s Bryann Aguilar