Toronto city councillor Jon Burnside made a citizen’s arrest yesterday morning when he visited the Leaside Home Depot and found two men leaving the store with unpaid merchandise. A 10-year Toronto Police Services veteran, Burnside acknowledged that the intervention was risky but said one of the men turned on him when he took out his phone to record the men, who were pushing shopping carts filled with power tools.
“I was only planning on videotaping them but once the guy came at me I knew there was no going back,” Burnside said. Two other men, a contractor and an off-duty firefighter, assisted him as he restrained one of the suspects until police arrived. The other suspect fled the scene.
