A man has been arrested in a dramatic police chase downtown after the suspect allegedly kidnapped a person at gunpoint and crashed a stolen U-Haul truck into other vehicles on Wednesday.
Toronto police say officers were in the area of Danforth and Warden avenues at around 11:30 a.m. for an investigation into the stabbing of an off-duty officer that happened on Dec. 6 outside of a Best Buy in Scarborough.
Police then located the suspect in a stolen U-Haul truck and attempted to stop the vehicle, Insp. Maher Abdel-Malik told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday.
The suspect refused to stop and got into some sort of “altercation” with the officers, resulting in several of them sustaining minor injuries, Abdel-Malik said.
He added that at this time investigators learned that the suspect had abducted a citizen at gunpoint. That citizen was later brought to safety and the suspect took off in the U-Haul, Abdel-Malik said.
“At that point the officers did not engage with the male and followed at a safe distance while we requested the help of York Regional Police and they provided their helicopter,” he said.
Abdel-Malik shared that police tracked the U-Haul as it travelled downtown and decided to box it in along Carlton Street. In a video of the interaction, police are seen taking the suspect out of the U-Haul and forcing him to the ground as they arrested him. Police said a man in his forties was then taken into custody.
Police believe the U-Haul collided into several vehicles throughout Toronto and Durham. Anyone involved is being asked to contact police at 416-808-1900.
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