Suspect already in handcuffs allegedly steals Toronto police SUV with two dogs inside

A suspect already in handcuffs has allegedly managed to overpower a Toronto police officer and steal their SUV, sending police on a wild early morning chase that ended with an attempted carjacking.

Officers said they were called to a break and enter at the corner of Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue before 4:30 a.m., where they located a male suspect and began to detain him.

In the course of the arrest, the suspect managed to overpower an arresting officer after handcuffs were placed on him, and jump into a police canine unit SUV, police said.

He then allegedly sped away to the west, with two police dogs sitting in the back of the vehicle.

Police said the suspect then crashed the SUV after pulling into the parking lot of a Metro grocery store in the Keele Street and Lawrence Avenue area.

Before police arrived, the suspect allegedly approached several cars and tried to open them, and then flagged down a taxi in an attempt to carjack it.

In exclusive video obtained by CTV News Toronto, an individual is seen running through an intersection towards a tax. The person proceeds to repeatedly hit the window on the driver’s side, eventually smashing the glass.

The driver of the taxi starts to drive away while the individual clings to the side of the vehicle.

A resident who provided the video described the incident as “scary,” and said she thought someone “was going to die.”

“He was yelling at the cab driver to open the door and when he didn’t, he smashed through,” she said.

A short time later police caught up with the suspect and took him into custody. He was transported to a hospital trauma centre in non-life-threatening condition.

The taxi driver was taken to local hospital with minor injuries, police said. The dogs in the back of the police vehicle were not harmed.

Toronto police Insp. Craig Young called the incident “quite extraordinary.”

“It was an audacious move to take a police car and engage in this kind of activity, it’s just extraordinary,” he said.

A large amount of debris was seen along Keele Street leading up to the grocery store.

Asked how a suspect could steal a police vehicle in such a manner, Craig said several times they were still working to determine what transpired, or if an internal probe into police practice was needed.

--With files from CP24's Beatrice Vaisman.