Lessons for police in machete attack

Re Security guards were just doing their jobs, Dec. 26 Please help me to understand this situation. On Dec. 23, an unarmed security guard was willing and able to risk his life by tackling and disarming an apparently agitated, machete-wielding man who had already injured an apparently innocent passerby.

In contrast, early in the morning of July 27, 2013, one Toronto Police Service officer fired multiple rounds into a knife-wielding man who had harmed no one, and another TPS officer deployed a Taser on the recumbent, mortally wounded man.

Three questions: First, why is the TPS failing to train its officers as well as the security company seems to have trained its guards?

Second, why is the TPS failing to recruit officers who are apparently as brave and resourceful as this security guard and his partner demonstrated themselves to be?

Third, if the TPS had been at the incident on Dec. 23, would we now be facing another scenario in which an accused person never had the opportunity to stand trial for the charges against him? Edward Bricknell, Toronto There is an important lesson to be learned from the recent incident near the Eaton Centre, where a man wielding a machete and a hunting knife was successfully disarmed by two security guards.

It would have been easy for them just to call the police, but the situation required immediate action to avert any further danger to the public. The security guards followed their training and immediately resolved a volatile situation that could have resulted in many more casualties.

This should be a salutary reminder to law enforcement officers when dealing with armed assailants. The use of a lethal weapon to resolve such situations must remain an option, but only as a last resort, not a first response. Keith Spicer, Oakville Nathaniel McNeil and his colleague, Phillip Bonaparte, demonstrated true courage near Bay and Dundas on Dec. 23. Without guns, batons, Tasers or even pepper spray, they subdued a man armed with a machete and a large hunting knife who had already attacked and wounded one man.

Toronto needs cops like McNeil and Bonaparte. Do the right thing Chief Mark Saunders and offer them jobs on the Toronto police force. Edward McDermott, Bowmanville, Ont.