COPS… in Maple Leaf

By kate on February 27th, 2006

“Get down on the ground!”

“Get down on the ground!”

“Get down on the ground!”

After a couple repetitions of this yelled exclamation outside our bedroom window last night, we both woke up. It was about 2am. After ascertaining that it wasn’t a dream, we looked outside the window to see a police car outside our house. The shouter, a cop, was partially visible in front of the house kitty-corner to ours as he attempted to subdue someone we couldn’t see (because of a large SUV in the way).

Shortly, two other police cars raced up (silently but with lights flashing) and other officers jumped out, guns drawn. One guy had a rifle. Now that reinforcements had arrived, the stand-off was won and the suspect was restrained on the ground after a brief struggle. We never actually saw the guy, but heard his continual shouts, exclamations, and little songs. From what we could hear, he definitely had some kind of mental disturbance.

Then, a period of waiting while some of the cops looked around, watched the suspect, etc. I threw on clothes and went out on my front porch (any danger seeming past). I could see curtains being drawn aside in my neighbors’ houses as the suspect’s shouts continued to wake people.

Another police car pulled up in the line and a woman in pajamas walked with a policeman to where the suspect was being held. I assume she identified him, then was led back away.

Finally, a police van joined the party, making it seven police vehicles filling our street. The police van pulled in the far end of the street (to the front of the line of cars) and they loaded the suspect into the back.

This done, the street was finally quiet and the cops began to disperse. I flagged one down on the way back to his car to ask what happened. He told me the suspect had stolen a car around 80th, crashed it, then ran down our street and had been in the process of trying to steal another. He had also been carrying a fake gun, which he waved at the police when they found him. The cop, who seemed to still be a bit buzzed from the excitement, said the suspect was lucky to “still be here” [in other words, not shot]. I thanked him, and the line of police cars slowly filed away down the street.