Suspected pepper spray unleashed on TTC travellers at Runnymede Station
· Toronto Sun
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
For the second time this month, an unknown person unleashed a spray on TTC property.
Visit mchezo.co.za for more information.
On Sunday afternoon, someone released suspected pepper spray in the vicinity of Runnymede Station in the Bloor West Village area.
“We did receive a call around 3 p.m. for this incident,” Toronto Police spokesperson Ashley Visser said in a statement to the Toronto Sun. “It does appear that someone did spray pepper spray at street level, but there (were) no reported injuries.”
A High Park woman who wished to remain anonymous contacted the Toronto Sun about the alleged incident.
“I am an injury,” she told the Sun. ”I was on my way grocery shopping, nothing eventful, just taking the station because it was raining. I decided to take the subway and then this happened.”
This is potentially the second incident involving pepper spray unleashed upon TTC property this month. On June 9, an unidentified woman allegedly assaulted a TTC passenger with suspected pepper spray on a bus in Scarborough.
Toronto Police said at the time, the assailant was on a bus that was eastbound on Sheppard Ave. E. at Markham Rd. when the incident occurred just after 6 p.m.
Toronto Police did not immediately respond to a query from the Sun asking if both incidents were possibly related.
‘Covering their faces’
According to the 40-something female who spoke to the Sun, multiple people were affected by the suspected pepper spray.
She said she remembers seeing members of both the Toronto fire department and ambulance service at the scene.
“I saw everyone around me covering their faces, coughing like crazy,” she said. “There were at least 30 people who were doing that. And then it just hit me and I started coughing. It was almost like a chemical smell and my throat just got very itchy, and I exited the station to where the fresh air was (at the) Bloor St. W. and Kennedy Ave. exit. There was a girl who was standing next to me, and she had her shirt covering her nose and there are all these people who were coughing and wondering what was going on. There were people who wanted to take the subway but didn’t go in because of what was going on.”
The woman, who said she is a High Park business owner, said she called 911 at 2:52 p.m. She said that call was initially met with some skepticism, as if the operator didn’t believe her initial claim.
“I have a history of chronic migraines,” she said. “I am also a little asthmatic and I didn’t want to risk it. I wanted to get checked out. I still feel there is something in my lungs. I couldn’t see as my eyes were burning. I went inside the ambulance, and they started flushing my eyes with water. Thank goodness it didn’t result in a traumatic injury.”
The TTC confirmed there was a spray unleashed near or outside of the station, but they didn’t know what kind of spray it was. For safety reasons, they “bypassed as a precaution.”
‘Poorly handled’
However, the entire situation was, in the woman’s opinion, “poorly handled.”
She said she looked for updates on the TTC website, disappointed that she didn’t see or hear an announcement about the situation or the potential danger to transit users at the time.
“For something so widespread, you shouldn’t hide what happened,” she said. “You should announce it and say this happened. You should talk about what kind of investigation you guys did. Did you check the cameras? Did you try to see who released this supposed pepper spray.”
Anyone with information regarding the suspect’s identity or whereabouts is urged to call police at 416-808-4200 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).