Posted on 08/03/2007 9:55:36 AM PDT by oakcon
MARKHAM, ONT. — An undercover York Regional Police officer, dragged to his death yesterday by an alleged car thief on a sleepy residential street, is "a true hero" who paid the ultimate price for his "selfless sacrifice," Police Chief Armand La Barge said.
A charge of manslaughter has been laid against a 19-year-old Toronto man, with further charges pending. A second suspect in custody also faces an array of criminal charges.
Constable Robert Plunkett was a 22-year veteran of York Regional Police and 43-year-old father of three. He died after an abortive 5 a.m. operation when he approached the driver's side of a car to arrest a man suspected of trying to steal airbags - a profitable mini-industry in the auto-theft world.
The suspect threw the Honda into reverse and Constable Plunkett was trapped by the open driver's-side door. The vehicle drove over a curb, across a lawn and slammed into a tree, fatally injuring the officer, Chief La Barge said.
It's your airbags thieves now covet Backup police then rammed the vehicle and arrested the driver as he attempted to escape. The other suspect, nearby in a second car, was also quickly apprehended.
Rushed to Scarborough Grace Hospital, Constable Plunkett died soon afterward - the first York Regional Police officer killed in the line of duty in more than 20 years.
The slain officer once won a bravery reward for rescuing an elderly woman from a frozen lake and was renowned for his work on behalf of the Special Olympics, a forum for disabled athletes.
"Rob and police officers like him are true pillars of the community that we serve, and their selfless sacrifice and their hard work ensures that the communities that we call home are safe places in which to live and to raise a family," Chief La Barge said.
Asked if Constable Plunkett's approach of the suspect was in line with normal procedure, Chief La Barge replied, "Surveillance officers, when they undertake these types of details, formulate a plan as to how they would effect the arrests where arrests need to be made."
As upwards of 30 officers descended on the crime scene early yesterday, residents of Ascot Crescent described the chaos.
Startled awake by the ruckus, one resident described seeing Constable Plunkett lying on the street.
"I heard a very loud noise and somebody yelling," said a woman who asked that her name not be published. "He was lying on the ground and they were trying to get him to breathe."
She said she took a blanket outside to an emergency worker in hopes that it would be passed on to Constable Plunkett, but it was too dark for her to tell if it was eventually placed upon him.
A few doors away, at a home directly across the street from where he was killed, another homeowner recounted hearing officers yelling, "Breathing! Breathing!"
Police had followed two cars - both Hondas - from an address in Toronto to Ascot Crescent, in the Birchmount Road and Steeles Avenue area. At least one of the vehicles was stolen and police believe it had been taken to a quiet location to remove its airbag.
The driver was trying to do just that when Constable Plunkett moved in for the arrest, Chief La Barge said.
The death is the first killing of a police officer in York Region since 1984, when two officers died in the line of duty within weeks, and sent shock waves across the force, formed in 1971 and now serving more than 900,000 people.
"It's an organization where we've not lost many officers, but even one is one too many," Deputy Chief Bruce Herridge said.
The theft of airbags and other auto accessories is a long-established business, said Detective Staff Sergeant Scott Mills, who heads the Ontario Provincial Police auto-theft unit.
"There is a very large grey market for replacement auto components, airbags being one, along with GPS, stereos, body components - things that can easily be put into high-end vehicles," he said.
"Body shops buy them. There's a very low profit margin in auto body repair, so if the owner can buy, say, airbags for a Cadillac Escalade for $100 on the grey market, then he doesn't have to go to GM and buy them for $400."
As for the thieves, police say they range from drug-hungry addicts needing a fix, to slick, well-organized criminal gangs.
"And some shops buy them up like candy," another police source said.
In this instance, detectives believe the suspects specialized in the theft of airbags, which also get shipped abroad to developing countries.
Chief La Barge suggested Constable Plunkett had no choice but to act as he did.
"Surveillance officers work in a team environment, but the situations that they encounter can happen so quickly that there is absolutely no alternative but for the surveillance officers to make those arrests," he said.
"And this is the particular situation that we are dealing with here."
Chief La Barge indicated that 43 airbags had been stolen in Markham since January of this year - most from Honda and Acura model vehicles - and that this particular investigation had been under way for two or three weeks.
Nadeem Jiwa, 19, has been charged with manslaughter, which usually describes an act of unintentional homicide. Baseer Yousafzai, 23, faces charges of breach of bail and possession of stolen property.
Both men are from Toronto and likely face additional charges, police said.
Also note the names of the criminals: Nadeem and Baseer. ROP strikes again.
Ah, the sweet smell of caste systems ... not just for India anymore. Some people are more equal than others.
I think the point of it is that police officers put themselves in the way of danger for others. Really the only difference is that you don’t have to prove planning, and the guy gets a longer sentence, which I see as fair in my books.
Has more to do with the concept of killing the law, not a person. It is preferred that matters be handled in a court rather than out on the street.
They also get vests, guns, the ability to speed and a lot of other perks for their job that would be criminal for us peasants. In my opinion, those things are already enough compensation for the risks they knowingly and willingly take. I do not believe their lives are any more important, significant or valuable than that of any other productive citizen. For example, on a per capita basis, fishermen and loggers give up their lives a lot more frequently than officers do, and they feed and shelter us.
There are lots of places where respect for THE LAW is paramount, e.g. North Korea, Soviet Union, etc. So there’s gotta be something else at stake here.
The tip-off was the identification of the suspects' being from Toronto, coupled with the studious avoidance of their actual names until the end.
Police ought to be doing a sting on the scumbag autobody repair businesses who knowingly buy stolen parts and create the demand for scumbags like these to steal them. Going after the theiving scum alone is not enough.
Manslaughter?
I thought that anytime someone is killed during the act of a felony, it was automatically first degree murder.
> They also get vests, guns, the ability to speed and a lot of other perks for their job that would be criminal for us peasants.
I bet you’d be the first to complain if your home got invaded and the cops didn’t show up quick enough for your liking.
Vests and guns aren’t “perks” my FRiend: for cops they are “safety equipment”. And they get the “ability to speed” so that they can get to crime scenes and catch fleeing crooks faster.
> In my opinion, those things are already enough compensation for the risks they knowingly and willingly take.
Why aren’t you a cop?
*DieHard*
I have no expectation that cops would show up at my house in time to make any difference to the criminals, and furthermore I understand, unlike the vast majority of Americans, that the police have no duty to protect me, but only the peace as a whole.
Vests and guns aren’t “perks” my FRiend: for cops they are “safety equipment”.
Criminals attack civilians much more often than they attack cops, but much of the safety equipment that is deemed necessary for cops is against the law for civilians. Prior to the sunset of Clinton's AWB, essentially all cops carried post-ban normal-capacity magazines, which were felonies in the hands of the rest of us. Although that particular insult has vanished, other examples abound. We are told that short-barreled rifles, silencers, and full-auto weapons are "only the tools of criminals and assassins," which is why we can't be allowed to own them. But some of the people who tell us this frequently make use of these tools themselves, e.g. BATFE, and FBI agents, and "ordinary" cops who are on the SWAT team. They do not tell us which of these two groups (or both) they belong to.
And they get the “ability to speed” so that they can get to crime scenes and catch fleeing crooks faster.
Indeed - for example, crooks who are driving too fast.
Why aren’t you a cop?
Society has informed me that my services to it as a scientist are more valuable than as a cop.
Yours is a sad viewpoint. Enjoy your science.
Sad but true.
> Sad but true.
No, sad but sad. I regularly encounter cops with my work as a volunteer and I would not want their job for all the tea in China. I do not understand why anyone would want to do what they do for the lousy pay that they get and the lousy lifestyle that comes with it.
Particularly knowing that there are people like you out there that begrudge them bulletproof vests and guns and the right to speed to crime scenes and the right to breathalyze you and the right to pull you over for driving like a moron.
This is the difference between being a sheepdog and a sheep. You sir are a sheep.
You misunderstand, perhaps intentionally. I don't have any problem with guns nor bulletproof vests, not even when police have them. But I strongly resent the fact that many officers happily enforce laws against us, prohibiting we mere peasants from owning or carrying the same sort of things for ourselves as they do on a daily basis, and that they act so violently against us when we do. Even more so when considering they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, and that Constitution prohibits the sorts of gun control laws that gives them the reasons to act against us.
I happened to see two people stage a nonviolent protest of Denver's open-carry ban, which incidentally violates both the federal and Colorado state Constitutions. The two participants informed police that they would do this, and expected to be arrested for it. Despite the fact that they both peacefully strapped holsters on their persons (after reading some apparent trash written by dead white guys - the Bill of Rights, I think) they were jumped by multiple officers and VIOLENTLY wrestled to the ground and handcuffed. Perhaps you can tell me why the people you speak so highly of found it necessary to do this when a simple "You are under arrest" would have sufficed.
You may also recall the police seizing guns from victims of Katrina.
and the right to speed to crime scenes
I dislike hypocrisy. If it's unsafe to drive fast, which is ostensibly why they ticket us when we do so, why do they do it? Police officers are made of the same stuff we are, and have the same human failings as we do. (At least, that's what I believe; apparently you disagree.)
This is the difference between being a sheepdog and a sheep. You sir are a sheep.
You might think so, but you are mistaken. Considering the relative risks posed by governments vs. criminals in the last hundred years, you should reflect on whether your allegiance is actually more with the wolves or with the sheepdogs.
In my old department if your dragging a LEO in your getaway vehicle the drivers side of the vehicle should have had many many bullet holes in it from the LEO’s partners on the scene........assault with a deadly weapon (vehicle) warrants a response in kind and application of deadly force to stop the threat.........
The POS driving the car should have never lived to see the inside of a jail or courtroom IMHO.
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