A frame grab of surveillance video from a police helicopter shows three cars creeping along a street in Markham, Ont., on June 20, before careening into a parked York Regional Police SUV.Supplied
The surveillance video, shot last June from a police helicopter through a night-vision lens, opens with three cars creeping along a quiet suburban street in York Region, north of Toronto.
A voice comes across the police radio. “Let’s take ‘em down right now,” it says. “Contain!”
The vehicles accelerate. One careens across a front yard, crushing some shrubs and a flower bed, before crashing straight into the side of a York Regional Police SUV.
Nearly a dozen officers surround the vehicle, arrest three masked men and seize one loaded handgun.
Toronto police corruption case puts other criminal trials at risk
The takedown was so swift that many residents along the street didn’t notice any police activity until they awoke the next morning. And it would take another 7½ months before they would learn the full gravity of the situation.
At a news conference on Thursday, York Regional Police Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan said the arrests were the “genesis” of an investigation that would lead to charges against seven Toronto Police officers and rattle public confidence in law enforcement throughout the region.
Investigators allege that hit men visited a home along the street three times over a 36-hour period last June, intent on murdering one of the occupants, a deputy superintendent at Toronto South Detention Centre, the province’s biggest jail.
The Globe and Mail is not naming the intended target of the alleged plot, who investigators emphasized had no criminal involvement.
“Our belief is that [he] was doing his job effectively, was ethical and had complete integrity in his position,” Deputy Chief Hogan said. “His commitment to integrity in his position was likely what spawned the criminal actions against him.”
That largely squares with what three correctional sources told The Globe. The deputy superintendent oversaw security operations within Toronto South, putting him in charge of investigating and preventing the near-constant stream of drugs, liquor, cellphones and other contraband entering the jail.
Seven Toronto police officers and one retired officer were charged as part of a complex investigation into organized crime and corruption.
He apparently toiled long hours at the facility and succeeded in stemming the flow of contraband to a trickle. One source estimated that his efforts likely cost drug networks millions of dollars in lost revenue. His devotion made him popular among rank-and-file officers, according to all three sources, a rare feat in a workplace where relations between management and correctional officers are generally strained.
The Globe is not naming the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Most staff learned of the attempted murder in the days immediately after it unfolded. Counsellors and other supports were made available. The deputy superintendent has not returned to work since the incident, one source said.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents most correctional staff, declined to comment on the story because the superintendent is not a member.
The Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor-General did not respond to questions sent by The Globe late Thursday.
As York Regional Police investigated the attempted hit last summer, they soon found a connection to Timothy Barnhardt, a 56-year-old constable with the Toronto Police Service, who they allege accessed and distributed personal information to organized crime figures in the region.
Over ensuing months, the investigation would sprawl to include several additional shootings, extortion and commercial robberies throughout the Greater Toronto Area. The breadth of the allegations against police has shaken staff at the jail, who generally consider the Toronto force close colleagues in law enforcement. One correctional source described a sense of betrayal upon learning of the accusations.
Outside the jail superintendent’s address, a high windrow of snow blocked the driveway, suggesting little recent traffic at the home. Along the street, Christmas decorations and hockey nets were buried under a thick layer of snow.
Several neighbours said that a police cruiser was stationed outside the address for at least a week last year. But all declined to say anything about the alleged target of the failed hit or his family, careful not to betray one of their own.