November 2026
Oy vey! Okay, so if we are to believe the explanation provided by Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw regarding the not-currently-in-custody 23-year-old Toronto resident Daijohn Richards, the alleged participant in the Bridle Path home invasion who attended St. Joseph’s Health Centre with a gunshot wound, apparently we now need to provide police officers with the legal authority to hold someone for a reasonable amount of time to determine if they have been involved in a crime as a result of a gunshot wound? I would have thought that the legal authority of investigative detention was sufficient, but apparently not!
As retired Toronto Police homicide investigator Mark Mendolson pointed out on Newstalk 1010’s John Moore Show, getting shot is not a crime in of itself. True enough, but surely the courts of law would agree that how that person got shot could constitute an offence, such as careless use of a firearm, thus police should have the legal authority to hold an uncooperative gunshot victim, as this person allegedly was, until they can determine exactly how said person got shot in the first place. It’s not like he slipped while holding a nail gun and put one through his foot while working at his job as a roofer. Richards was shot with a firearm, not “allegedly” shot, but actually shot, so if police detention authority is lacking in their efforts to determine exactly why Richards had been shot, then our esteemed politicians need to correct this shortfall.
The law must be upheld, but the appearance of the law being upheld is very important too, as is a much better explanation from Chief Demkiw as to why a man allegedly involved in a horrifically violent home invasion was not held in custody long enough to determine how he came to be shot and whether there was a connection to any other crimes in the city.
Could someone please make this make sense!
Sources: Toronto police defend decision not to arrest Bridle Path home invasion suspect.
