Police mark public’s ‘unselfish acts of bravery’
Thwarting machete attacker and aiding murder victim’s parents among 48 awards
Right before he got discharged, a patient remarked — overheard by a nurse — that he had a gun and sometimes “felt like playing a video game of the hospital.” Through alarming surveillance footage, security officers would later conclude the man needed to be immediately taken down.
Indeed having a gun, the patient had re-entered the hospital. After his arrest, officers would also find a machete in his pants.
That incident was one of 23, mostly last year, in which members of the public had assisted police. Fortyeight people were named, and they each received a community member award Sunday afternoon from Chief Bill Blair and police board chair Alok Mukherjee.
In a statement Sunday morning, the police expressed gratitude toward the people, thanking them for their “unselfish acts of bravery, courage and assistance.”
Among those being honoured were a biologist and victim services worker in the case of the gruesome murder of a Chinese student in 2011, a school worker who saved students from a cleaver-wielding slasher and the nurse and security officers who helped apprehended the gun-toting hospital patient. The hospital takedown In August last year, nurse Catalina Restrepo woke a sleeping patient to tell him he was being discharged; the patient immediately asked whether anyone had gone through his large backpack.
Restrepo said no, and grew increasingly concerned as she heard what appeared to be a veiled threat. Calm despite the situation, police said, Restrepo pointed the patient to the door and then notified security.
Security officers then contacted police and saw him on surveillance cameras taking out a gun from his bag and put it back.
What ensued was a seven-person takedown involving security officers Matthew Oakley, Timothy Singh, Jiyoon Han, Kevin Ortiz, Kyle Andrews, Danny Trinh and Meagan Chan, who “took physical control of the suspect.”
Police then arrested the man, who was initially admitted on an undisclosed emergency.
In Sunday’s statement, police said the nurse’s and officers’ “quick and decisive action to put the safety of their co-workers and patients ahead of their own.” Trial of the webcam murderer AYork University student was found dead and naked in an apartment in 2011, semen on her skin and another’s skin under her fingernails. A bloody T-shirt lay nearby.
The forensic biologist Melissa Kell would find the DNA all belonged to the same man, putting him squarely at the scene.
Brian Dickson had been accused of murdering a student from China, Qian “Necole” Liu, 23, at a rooming house near York, an incident caught partially on webcam as the woman’s ex-boyfriend watched in anguish halfway across the world.
At Dickson’s trial, Kell testified that it is nearly impossible for a random person to have the same match, and the scene contained nobody else’s DNA.
Dickson was convicted days later in a verdict hailed by Liu’s parents, who spent about a month in Toronto to attend the trial.
Their journey was partially covered thanks to the efforts of Tia Adams, a victim services worker assigned to the case.
“Using her resources, Tia was able to secure funding which assisted in offsetting the cost of travel and accommodation incurred by the parents of the deceased,” Toronto police said.
Adams also provided a personal translator and auditory equipment which afforded real-time translation of in-court proceedings.
At the end of the trial, Liu’s parents expressed their “respect and gratitude to all Canadians.”
“This outpouring of benevolence and human kindness gives us the spiritual strength to carry on with our lives,” they said in a letter. Meat cleaver at school
A blood-soaked man, meat cleaver in hand, was a mere one metre away from the school worker David Noble as he slammed the door in the man’s face.
It was March last year at a local school. Just moments prior, two daycare workers ran into Noble’s office yelling, “Shut the door!”
The blood-soaked man, though, was determined to enter the room, police said, and made several attempts to force his way in.
“At one point, he started swinging the meat cleaver through the base of the door hoping to gain entry,” police said.
“David successfully secured the office by holding the door shut.”
During this time, Noble also give instructions to the two daycare workers to contact other staff and to initiate a full lockdown as there were classrooms nearby full of children under 6 years old.
Noble held the door shut until police arrived to arrest the man.
Two victims with knife wounds and “saturated in blood” were later taken to hospital, though it is unclear whether they were the daycare workers.
Police said Noble had played in “stopping the accused from inflicting further harm.” With files from Star staff