Suspect in officer stabbing abducted citizen at gunpoint in Toronto and fled in stolen U-Haul: police

Toronto police say that the driver of a panel truck has been taken into custody following a pursuit by its Emergency Task Force.

The driver of a stolen U-Haul truck has been arrested after allegedly kidnapping another individual at gunpoint and then leading police on a pursuit through the streets of Toronto.

Police say that officers were in the area of Danforth and Warden avenues at around 11:30 a.m. as part of an investigation into the Dec. 6 stabbing off an off-duty officer outside a Scarborough Best Buy.

Insp. Maher Abdel-Malik says that while in the area police located the suspect in the stabbing in a stolen U-Haul and attempted to stop the vehicle.

Police, however, say that the suspect refused to stop and got into some sort of “altercation” with responding officers.

Several officers sustained minor injuries as a result, Abdel-Malik said.

“At that time we also learned that the individual had in fact abducted a citizen at gunpoint. That citizen was 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.”

Abdel-Malik said that police tracked the U-Haul as its made its way downtown and eventually decided to box it in along Carlton Street near Church Street with help from members of the Emergency Task Force.