Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw assured residents “there’s been no failure” in the investigation of a Bridle Path home invasion, after a suspect who visited a hospital with a gunshot wound shortly after the incident Thursday wasn’t arrested.
Demkiw took multiple questions from reporters at an unrelated news conference Monday and said police had no evidence to suggest one of the suspects had been shot at the scene of the home invasion.
“We were very, very clear: we are following the evidence as it becomes available,” he said. “Had there been evidence to allow us to do something different, thatâs what would have happened.”
Police are typically called to the hospital when someone appears with a gunshot wound, however, they are not able to arrest anyone without reasonable grounds linking them to a crime.
Last Thursday, police responded to reports of a violent home invasion at a residence near Hyde Park Circle and Post Road. Police said three suspects, armed with handguns and a hammer, forced their way into the home, made demands for valuables and attacked four adults â a 75-year-old father, 64-year-old mother and their daughters, aged 26 and 28.
Police named one of three suspects over the weekend: Daijohn Richards, 23, of Toronto. They said Saturday that Richards had walked into a hospital in the city with a gunshot wound on Thursday, after itâs believed he was accidentally shot by an accomplice during the home invasion.
Daijohn Richards, 23, of Toronto, is one of three suspects in the investigation of a violent home invasion in Toronto’s Bridle Path neighbourhood last week. He showed up at a hospital with a gunshot wound shortly after the incident, but was later released. (Toronto Police Service)
In a post on social media platform X, police said “investigators immediately recognized the potential connection” between the suspect and the case. But they said police need evidence, not just suspicion, before they can make an arrest.Â
Insp. Kristy Smith said at a news conference Saturday officers interacted with Richards on Thursday, but they did not have enough information at the time to arrest him before he was released from the hospital later that morning.
The two other suspects have not yet been identified, but are described as being in their 20s, and were wearing dark clothes at the time of the incident, she said.
Suspect identified in Bridle Path home invasion in Toronto
On Monday, Demkiw said he understood the public’s concern considering the “brazen, terrible nature” of the incident, especially as people expect their homes to be a safe place.
“It does rock our sense of safety and security when our homes are violated,” he said. “I can assure Torontonians that there will be no resource spared and no stone left unturned.”
“Some of the work that has to happen does take time and these things donât always line up perfectly for us the way we would like or the way they sometimes appear on TV,” Demkiw added. “The nature of whatâs unfolding continues to be very, very dynamic and very, very active.”
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4 hospitalized as Toronto police investigate home invasion, shooting at Bridle Path home
The investigators on the case are some of “the best in the business,” Demkiw said.
“Had I been a victim of this horrible set of circumstances, these are precisely the people I would want chasing and apprehending the offenders and bringing them to justice,” he said. “I have complete confidence in their abilities.”
