The cellphone video snippet lasts four seconds and contains no sound. In it, a man in a blue Toronto Maple Leafs ball cap and a checkered flannel shirt struggles while he’s subdued by three people dressed head-to-toe in black. They’re on the Prince Street sidewalk, about half a block from where Prince meets Brunswick Street. The pavement is slick with rain. One of the three in black—a man, wearing a black baseball cap and a black jacket—has the flannel-shirted man in what appears to be a chokehold. Another, wearing what appears to be a staff-emblazoned jacket, leans over them, his arms locked into a tangle of limbs. The third holds the flannel-shirted man’s hands in place at his sides, until one breaks free. The man in the Leafs cap slaps at the ground once, twice, the way a wrestler might tap out of a fight. On the ground beside them, another man dressed in black has somebody pinned against the road. The cellphone video zooms in, then out. Cars pass. A bystander looks on, hands in pockets, a couple metres away. The video ends.
The video recording landed in our inbox earlier this week—but we can’t tell who’s in it, when it happened or what happened in the moments before or after those four seconds. What we need are witnesses who were there and are willing to talk about what they saw. Is that you?
Warning: The video below contains sensitive matter and depictions of violence. Please view with caution.
Do you know more about what happened in this video, when it was filmed or who’s in it? Have you seen a longer version of it, or a different video with the same subjects? Send us an email at [email protected]. We’ll never publish your name or any identifying details at The Coast without your consent.
