TORONTO ARCHITECT SUSPECT IN STABBING
TORONTO • Police rappelled down the side of a downtown Toronto hotel Thursday to rescue a Harvard- educated architect who for three hours sat perched on the railing of a 27th-floor balcony after she allegedly stabbed a 67- yearold man.
Ellis Kirkland was taken into police custody shortly after 3:20 p.m. The 60-year-old woman is accused of repeatedly thrusting a large kitchen knife into a man at a Rosedale apartment building at about 7.30 a. m. Kirkland was not immediately charged. The victim was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds, police said. His injuries were considered life-threatening.
Investigators would not say if the victim and the suspect knew each other. But the Toronto Sun reported that several residents claimed the victim worked nights as a doorman at the building.
After the suspect fled the scene Thursday morning, police warned the public that she was considered armed and dangerous. The alleged getaway vehicle was located shortly before 11 a.m., Const. David Hopkinson said.
Police cordoned off an area around the Town Inn Suites near Church and Charles streets, less than a kilometre away from the scene of the stabbing. A source told the Toronto Sun that while ETF officers searched the hotel floor by floor, police received a tip that a woman was sitting on the railing of a balcony.
For three hours, officers tried to talk the woman down while she dangled her feet over the edge of a railing on the 27th floor, the Sun reported.
When she stepped inside for a moment at about 3: 20 p. m., two ETF officers rappelled down from the roof and were able to apprehend the 5-foot- 4 woman without injury, the Sun reported.
Police have not released information about a potential motive for the stabbing.
Kirkland has had a successful career in the decades since she graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelors of Architecture.
She went on to obtain a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard, with a specialty in large-scale infrastructure development, according to a glowing Ottawa Life Magazine profile published Oct. 22, 2014.
The Ottawa Life piece called her “the go- to person for insight into large infrastructure projects.” Just two months ago, the magazine interviewed Kirkland about the federal Liberal government’s infrastructure plan.
Kirkland was the first female president of the Ontario Association of Architects and has worked on high- profile projects in Canada, including Toronto’s waterfront, Ottawa Life reported.
The NATO Association of Canada (NAOC) lists Kirkland as one of its vice-presidents. She is also the chairwoman and founder of NATO Paxbuild Economic Platform, which is described as a special project of NAOC that is “designed to encourage peace and security through economic stability.”