Allegedly stolen Hummer hits police cars in Moss Park

A 32-year-old man is facing several charges after an allegedly stolen Hummer collided with multiple police cruisers in Toronto's Moss Park neighbourhood Thursday night, police say.

Toronto police say the incident happened in the area of Richmond and George streets just after 10 p.m.

Officers tried to conduct a traffic stop on the Hummer and the accused drove the vehicle into several police cars, Const. Laurie McCann said in an email Thursday.

A video obtained by CBC Toronto shows the Hummer being boxed in by two police cruisers on a city street while several officers with guns drawn approach on foot.

Police allege the Hummer was stolen. Officers began following the vehicle after their automatic licence plate reader notified them of a stolen vehicle close to their location, Toronto police said in a news release Friday. 

Witness describes incident as 'insane'

Chelsea Bradshaw, who lives on the street where the man was arrested, said she and others in her apartment saw the Hummer speeding down the street with police in pursuit.

"We all run over to the window, and then it's, like, literally out of the movie, like, cars sprinting down," Bradshaw said. "Then they're ramming into the police. It was just insane."

The man was taken into custody and no one was injured in the incident, police say.

The man now faces eight charges, including theft of a motor vehicle, assaulting a peace officer and failure to stop for police, police said in Friday's news release. He was scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing Friday morning.

Toronto Police Association president Clayton Campbell said Friday that the man was out on bail and has 75 prior criminal convictions.

CBC Toronto has been unable to confirm that the accused has prior criminal convictions or that he was out on bail. Toronto police said in an email that they do not release information about a person's criminal history. One of the charges the accused faces is failure to comply with a release order.

Campbell said Toronto Police Association is continuing to call on the federal government to act on bail reform.

"This is someone that should be held in custody, [that] shouldn't be out on the streets of Toronto," he said.

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria similarly responded to the incident with calls for bail reform Friday.

"The federal government needs to do its job and fix our broken bail system so we can keep dangerous criminals behind bars and off our streets," he said in a post on X.