WARMINGTON: Officer's bodycam footage seems to show shootout that left teen dead
Toronto boy, 16, was shot after traffic stop in Sheppard Ave. W.-Bathurst St. area of North York, later died in hospital
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It was a Wild West shootout like something out of the movies.
But it was real.
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WARMINGTON: Officer's bodycam footage seems to show shootout that left teen dead Back to video
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And horrifying.
The sound of multiple shots was deafening.
It’s a surreal shooting scene that shows how close Toronto came to seeing police officers killed.
Bodycam video released to social media Tuesday night highlights the extreme danger the officer was in as it appears to show a young man pointing and then firing a gun toward the officer as he was exiting from the backseat of a two-door Infiniti sports car riddled with bullets.
In the video, an officer calmly tells the suspect to “come on buddy” before a gun comes up and shots are fired, appearing to hit a side mirror.
“Gun, gun, gun,” an officer repeatedly yells.
The harrowing video also shows multiple shots being fired from two Toronto Police officers. At least a dozen shots are heard in the footage. The bodycam shows bullets being fired into the side door and windshield.
You can hear the screams of up to four females who had already been removed from the vehicle.
The video shows the officers offering a hand to the suspect to help him get out of the car and later applying a tourniquet and frantically offering CPR.
The Special Investigations Unit, which is investigating the case, said Tuesday that a 16-year-old Toronto boy who was shot during a traffic stop in the Sheppard Ave. W.-Bathurst St. area of North York had died at a hospital.
Sources told the Toronto Sun that after the car was flagged as part of a previous police investigation, young women exited the car without incident and the young male driving was the last to leave.
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This video offers insight into the probe and if true indicates police were responding to a gun being pointed in their direction and fired.
Toronto Police have not responded to a request for a comment on the video footage and the officers’ professionalism during the incident.
While one of the officers thought he had been struck in this wild shootout, no officers were injured, according to the SIU, which took his bullet-proof vest as evidence.
The identity of the suspect is unknown, although suspects under the age of 18 cannot be identified as per the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
It’s a horrifying video in which a young man lost his life and some officers could have lost theirs as well.
But what it also shows is the incredible bravery of the officers in a very dangerous call and that they had the wherewithal, compassion, professionalism and training to try to save him.
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