Toronto Police Chief defends investigators who let brutal home invasion suspect go after questioning him at hospital

Police believe that Richards was one of the three men who broke into the High Park Circle home of MAC Group CEO David Morton, his wife, and two adult daughters. Morton and his daughters were shot while his wife was beaten with a hammer. All are expected to survive with “life-altering” injuries.

When Richards arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound, police were called, as is the mandate when a gunshot victim arrives for treatment as guns are illegal in Toronto. Instead of holding Richards, officers spoke to him and let him go, saying they needed “evidence” and not “suspicion” before making an arrest.

Now officers seek the public’s help in finding Richards and his two accomplices. Demkiw actually defended the officers who let him go, even as Toronto Police warned the public that he was armed and dangerous.

When asked about it, Demkiw said “I think what’s important to recognize is the home invasion happened in the middle of the night, and a short time, a very short time later, an individual shows up at a hospital with a gunshot wound.”

“What’s important to note,” Demkiw went on, “is that the home invasion investigation, there is no information that’s suggested to investigators an assailant has been shot. So let me be very clear on that: the investigators in the middle of the night do not have information that an assailant had been shot during that home invasion.”

Handguns are not legal for carry in Toronto, however, so the question of whether or not a crime had been committed is confirmed by the existence of the gunshot wound itself. Police arrived and saw someone with a gunshot wound, meaning that someone shot a gun, which in the city of Toronto is already illegal. But they let him go.

“They responded to the hospital as they would when people walk in the hospital with a gunshot wound,” Demkiw said, “which happens in the city from time to time, and they advanced the investigation with the speed and flow that was available to them, given the circumstances and the totality of the information that was becoming available in very real time. We understand the public discourse and the desire for rapid answers, given the gravity of the situation.

“But let me be really, really crystal clear again. Had this been my family, these are the cops I want on the job, and I know cops from across this country. These are precisely the police officers and investigators I want holding offenders accountable that would have brought harm to my family, and I have full confidence in their abilities and what they're doing and how they're doing it.

“And they have the full resources they need and available to them that they need to get the job done. And that is the kind of veracity we bring to all of these kinds of cases: shootings, homicides in this city are a priority, a public safety priority, and have been for years. And you know we have incredible investigative results, as we know, and we've talked about at podiums like this many, many times.”