MANDEL: Toronto police union criticizes light sentence of gunman

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It’s a miracle that a Toronto police officer didn’t die that Christmas morning in 2021.

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“It is certainly just a matter of pure luck that neither the officers you fought with nor any members of the public passing by were struck by the bullet that was fired from your weapon and killed or injured,” said the Ontario Court Justice Michael Waby to Michael Katz this week.

“I’m sure the fact that these events occurred on a Christmas morning meant that St. Clair Avenue was quieter than normal and, thankfully, reduced the risk of catastrophe.”

Heavily intoxicated by marijuana, the court heard Katz, 35, crashed into the back of a Toyota parked on a city street, told the owner to “turn it off” and then drove off.

The police were called and they located Katz and his damaged car, but he insisted it was not his name. When the two tried to arrest him, he not only refused to comply, but in the “sustained and significant” fight that followed in St. Clair Ave. W., Waby said he pulled out a black gun and fired, the shot luckily missing. anyone and the gun fell into the street.

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Backup arrived, and they too had trouble controlling him. When Katz managed to remove his shirt and jacket and began to run, the police shot him. And he still didn’t cooperate, the judge said. Instead, he seized the taser used by Const. Nicola Kirwan and fired him.

Not a brilliant move. Since the electrodes were still embedded in Katz, it was retested.

Fortunately, it was a conscientious citizen who saw the gun he dropped in the street… a 9mm Glock with a live round in the chamber and turned it over to police.

Originally facing numerous charges, including two counts of attempted murder, Katz pleaded guilty in May to four counts: possession of a loaded prohibited firearm, aassault police officer with a weapon (a taser), failure to remain and impaired operation of a vehicle.

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The Crown asked for a sentence of four years less pre-trial custody. His lawyer wanted the first offender to receive a suspended sentence of six to nine months.

The judge rejected the defense’s request for a reduced sentence because the police used “excessive force.”

“The body-worn camera, sallyport and cell phone video footage reveal that Mr. Katz was deeply and decisively uncooperative throughout his interactions with police officers,” Waby wrote.

Police had to use force during the chaotic interaction, he added, to gain control of “a physically strong man who had used drugs voluntarily and was very physically resistant, that he consistently refused to comply with appropriate directions and that he had attempted to flee from officers after producing and discharging a handgun in the middle of a major street in Toronto moments earlier while officers were investigating a hit-and-run crash.”

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The judge rightly noted that it is a dangerous time to be a police officer in Toronto: statistics show that 671 TPS officers have suffered injuries from assault from the beginning of this year to the beginning of October. The two officers who responded, one of whom required shoulder surgery, detailed in their victim impact statements how they feared they would be killed.

“Society has a right to expect courts to take assaults against police officers and other first responders seriously,” Waby said. “Being assaulted is not part of the job description of a police officer and the fact that Parliament has ordered that the sentence for this offense must be served consecutively to any other sentence in this case underlines that.”

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This all sounds wonderful, but then the judge went and sentenced Katz to 18 months for the firearm, failure to remain and impaired sentences and six months for assaulting the police with a taser.

Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell called the sentence “absurd.”

“This decision is a slap in the face, not only to the members who were assaulted, but to all the members who serve this city and put their lives on the line,” he said. Toronto sun.

“What message does it send to other criminals, or anyone who wants to be a police officer, when the attempted murder of police officers goes relatively unpunished? Our members and our communities deserve better.”

They certainly do.

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