Saturday, July 27, 2013

This Doesn't Look Quite Right

A knife-wielding man on a TTC streetcar last night wound up on the receiving end of a barrage of police gunfire.   A horde of cops had the streetcar surrounded when one officer opened fire.   First three shots.  Then another four shots and then another and finally one last shot.



Nine shots?  The cop firing was obviously a good distance from the suspect.  Plenty of other officers were just casually milling around, apparently not in any fear for their safety.

We can't see what the suspect was doing before the officer opened fire or to the point where the firing finally stopped.   Perhaps the driver's life was in peril.   Somebody's life better have been in the balance.  Otherwise this has that eerie look of a police execution or "suicide by cop".

The Toronto Star has video of a witness being interviewed by police at the scene of the shooting.  The witness tells police that everyone, including the driver, was off the bus except the kid with the knife when the police began firing.   If that was the case it's hard to imagine why an officer, well out of knife range, would fire nine rounds at the young man.  If the witness' statement is accurate it's hard to see what this shooting is other than an execution.

5 comments:

Al said...

Only judging by video it doesn't make much sense. No tasers? Sure a lot of shots & no one seems concerned. Need more trustworthy info.

Dana said...

Probably a journalist Mayor Ford said "will no one rid me of..." about.

The Mound of Sound said...

@ Al - apparently, shortly after the 9th round is fired, an officer enters the bus from the rear door and does, in fact, taser the guy. That is the account of witnesses to the event.

Dana - you're evil. Have a great weekend.

thwap said...

Yeah. I thought there were supposed to be tasers for this sort of thing.

That looked pretty cold-blooded to me.

LeDaro said...

Mound, what you expect when you have a police state. Sad!!