A Toronto cop who overpowered a suspect in a bizarre hit and run attack that killed 10 people is being praised for his heroism.
“This guy is a hero,” Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association told the National Post.
The officer, who has not been identified, was at the crime scene first and confronted suspect Alek Minassian as he exited the van that is alleged to have struck 25 people along Toronto’s Yonge St., the busiest throughway in Canada’s largest city. The suspect told the officer that he had a gun his pocket after he invited the officer to “kill me.”
On Tuesday, police charged Minassian with 10 counts of first degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.
The arresting officer repeatedly told the suspect to “get down” until he eventually submitted to the demand and was handcuffed.
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Meanwhile, Canada’s Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is ruling out terrorism as a motive for the attack — “at the present time,” he says.
“I’ve had the opportunity to consult with the senior officials of the security and police agencies of the Government of Canada, and on the basis of all available information at the present time there would appear to be no national security connection to this particular incident,” Goodale told reporters at a Monday evening news conference in Toronto.