[dan e 1980]

>: it's a given that people can't drive but this is down right low. poor thing. it must have been hell for the cop that had to put down his horse buddy. i could only image the pain the horse went through. very sad.




Police horse put down after being hit
Grief-stricken Toronto officers looking for hit-and-run driver
Feb. 24, 2006. 09:46 PM
ASTRID POEI
TORONTO STAR

Grief-stricken Toronto police officers were forced to shoot a police horse, Brigadier, after the animal was struck and seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in Scarborough an hour after sunset Friday.

The officer riding Brigadier escaped serious injury when his mount was hit at about 7 p.m., while the two were on patrol on Lawrence Ave., between Kingston and Morningside Rds.

"It's absolutely awful, and we all feel sick about it," said Staff Sgt. Mark Gauthier of 43 Division. "The investigation is ongoing, and it will no doubt end in an arrest."

A Toronto Star freelance photographer witnessed officers shoot the animal at the scene.

Brigadier, a male bay, brown-orange in colour, was wearing reflective gear at the time, as was his rider, police said.

The officer, whose name was not released, was treated for his injuries in hospital.

Horse and rider were part of the Metro police mounted unit, formed in 1886. The unit has about 50 officers and 25 horses, and patrol Toronto throughout the year.

Police say each mounted unit can take the place of 10 officers, and is invaluable for crowd control, ground searches and regular patrols, since a mounted officer's vantage point allows them to quickly spot an injured person in the middle of a crowd.

The horses are also used in ceremonial details and parades.

Most horses serve from ages 4 to 18 and all are heavy horse crosses, called "grade" horses. The colouring of their shiny coats ranges from rich black to caramel brown. Each horse is trained for about two years and every horse has an assigned rider, which allows the officer and the animal to get to know each other well before they're called for day-to-day patrol.

It costs about $1 million per year to run the mounted unit, including officer salaries and operating costs.

Police could not say when last a horse was so seriously injured while on patrol that it had to be put down.

The suspect vehicle is described as a brown or maroon Dodge Caravan with high front end damage. Witnesses are being asked to call Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Legally speaking, the asshole who did this may be charged as if he injured a human officer, as I'm pretty sure that for the purposes of prosecution, a police dog or horse is treated the same as an officer.

 

[bizorky]

Hit and run drivers are such chicken-shits.

 

[gboykovekin]

I'm not suprised really. I almost got run over by two cars on my bike today.

 

[Canuck 36]

They've made an arrest: 42 year old guy charged with dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident.

 

[doady]

Maybe it is just the suburban drivers who are bad. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that that a hit-and-run killed a 75-year-old woman in Cooksville. That's nothing to compared to drivers in Quebec though. I was in Montreal last summer and I swear I have never seen such reckless driving.

 

[BrianHawkins1]

^ Try Italy. Madness.

Central America is incredible, too.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

It's way too easy to get a license here - a good chunk of the so called "drivers" on the road have no business of being on it, for the lack of skills and/or temperment.

AoD

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

www.640toronto.com/news/m...=metro.cfm

UPDATE: Arrest made after Horse Killed, Cop Injured in Hit and Run
Feb, 24 2006 - 8:20 PM

TORONTO/640 TORONTO - Toronto police have made an arrest in the hit and run that resulted in a police horse's death.
42 year old, Dirk Sankersingh has been arrested and charged with dangerous driving causing bodly harm and failing to stop after an accident.

Police say Sankersingh refused to pull over and instead pulled a u-turn and accelerated directly at the horse and officer.

The officer was treated for rib, leg and knee injuries.

The horse named 'Brigadier' had to be put down due to its injuries.

This bastard aimed his car at horse and rider. Police officers put their lives on the line on our behalf, and this singh-POS pulls this act. Let's lock him away.

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

I wonder if this is the same fellow? If not, may be time for a name change.

Dirk Sankersingh 905-856-1111
RE/MAX EXCELLENCE REALTY INC.

www.saxto.com/sub/waterfr...?cboType=6

www.saxto.com/sub/waterfr...omerID=309

 

[Crazy Canuck07]

This is just sad, if he actually did point right at the horse and luch the accelerator, lock him up and throw away the key. I'm just appauled at this.

 

[dan e 1980]

take away his right to drive forever.

 

[bizorky]

^They probably won't, but if you don't pay your 407 bills, watch out!

 

[dan e 1980]

They probably won't, but if you don't pay your 407 bills, watch out!

my thoughts exactly.

 

[dan e 1980]

Brigadier's death a loss to entire city
Mounted police horse mortally hurt in hit and run
Constable Kevin Bradfield recuperating at home
Feb. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
RITA DALY
STAFF REPORTER

He was called the Gentle Giant, a majestic creature that did his job with aplomb, had a horse's sense of humour and was always willing to please.

Yet in the line of duty, Brigadier, an 8-year-old prize-winning Belgian cross with the Toronto mounted police unit, was violently struck in what police are calling a deliberate hit-and-run in Scarborough on Friday.

In an emotional and heartbreaking scene, the emergency task force unit was called in to shoot the animal after it suffered two broken legs and lay on the road in excruciating pain.

Police say Brigadier took the brunt of the vehicle's impact and in all likelihood saved his rider's life. Constable Kevin Bradfield, who joined the mounted unit last May, was thrown onto the road and suffered broken ribs and neck and leg injuries. He was treated at Scarborough Centenary hospital and is recuperating at home.

Although Sgt. Mike Puterbaugh of the mounted police unit said a horse's status as an enforcement officer is something to be determined, "when we're on the street, the horse wears a breast plate that would bear the Toronto police crest on it. That's the logo of the Toronto police service that serves the citizens of Toronto."

The devastating loss of Brigadier has upset and angered members of the mounted unit and those who knew the animal. Toronto police purchased him in 2001 from a commercial horse breeder in Listowel, Ont.

Brigadier was one of 28 horses and 40 officers that make up the city's mounted unit, originally founded in 1886 to control speeding horses and patrol outlying areas. Brigadier's remains were being sent to the University of Guelph for further investigation and to be cremated. His ashes will be returned to Toronto for a memorial service.

"I think the entire city of Toronto will be touched by the loss of this animal," said police Chief Bill Blair, who attended the scene Friday night.

Blair said the force will be investigating the event "very aggressively."

"It was hard to tell (Bradfield) his horse had to be put down," said Constable Chris Heard. "The horse saved his life and he knows that," Heard said.

Friday's incident happened around 7 p.m. as four mounted officers were patrolling an area on Lawrence Ave. E. at Kingston Rd. as part of a new community policing effort to control drugs and gun crime.

A citizen called their attention to a man at a TD Canada Trust ATM drive-through who was swearing at a driver in line ahead of him.

The officers approached the car and asked him to pull over, but the man drove off, eastbound on Lawrence Ave. As the officers rode to the north side of the street, the driver suddenly made a U-turn and came back, striking one of the officers and his horse before fleeing.

A heavily damaged van with horsehair embedded in the windshield was found abandoned nearby; the suspect was arrested shortly after at his home.

Dirk Sankersingh, 42, is charged with dangerous operation causing bodily harm and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. He made a brief appearance at Old City Hall courthouse yesterday. Dressed in an orange detainee's jumpsuit, the burly, tired-looking man conferred occasionally with his defence lawyer, Al Hart, from the prisoner's box.

At his lawyer's request, the court granted medical treatment for Sankersingh and remanded him in custody until tomorrow. Hart said Sankersingh suffers from a pre-existing bleeding ulcer and also has "an unspecified mental condition."

"This whole thing is a real tragedy," said Staff Inspector William Wardle, head of the mounted unit. "Everybody knows these horses, so it's devastating. Everyone's concerned about the officer as well; he's in a lot of discomfort."

The only other case Wardle could recall of a horse being killed while on duty was four years ago when Lancer was accidentally struck by a vehicle on Strachan Ave. near the CNE grounds and had to be put down. The officer was injured and off work for a month.

In an interview at the Horse Palace yesterday, Heard said he raced to Friday's scene with a horse trailer, escorted by six police cars, hoping to transport Brigadier back for emergency medical treatment.

"I could tell by looking at him he couldn't be saved."

Heard ended up transporting the other three horses — Blue Moon, Elvis and Viscount — back to the Horse Palace.

"I never heard such upset horses," Heard said. "Blue Moon was kicking up a storm so much, I had to stop three times to calm him down."

Heard said Brigadier had a magnetic personality and a true sense of playfulness.

Despite the tragedy, members of the mounted unit were out working yesterday, watching over a demonstration in downtown Toronto. Sitting atop a brown mare equipped with a visor, Sergeant Jim Patterson said Brigadier's sudden and tragic death was "very upsetting."

"We've seen horses injured before in minor ways, when they've been stabbed or hit by pedestrians. But to have a vehicle... kill a horse, that's pretty bad," Patterson said.

With files from Paul Choi

and Matthew Kwong

___________________________________________

it was road rage. the part i don't get is that he turned around when he could have gotten away and aimed for the mounted unit. poor horses that had to see their buddy killed. they'll never be the same.

people stab and hit horses? wtf!