Const. Andrew Hong was one of five victims during Monday afternoon's shooting in Mississauga. (Photo Courtesy Toronto Police Service)

By Gates Guarin

Officer safety a priority after Ontario shooting spree

Sep 14, 2022 | 3:49 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A shooting rampage in Ontario earlier this week left two dead and three injured in what is being described as an “unprovoked,” ambush-style attack.

One of the deceased, 48-year-old Const. Andrew Hong, was a 22-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service. He was also a husband and a father of two. Hong is being remembered as a “gentle giant” and someone who had a larger-than-life personality.

Hong, a member of the traffic service unit, was gunned down at a Tim Hortons in Mississauga on Monday afternoon.

Hong was in Mississauga for a joint training exercise when he was fatally shot by a lone gunman at close range. The gunman also murdered one other person at an auto body shop in Milton before dying in an altercation with police in Hamilton.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Mustard Seed adding new shelter spaces at Alberta government's request

4h ago

HOLIDAYS

Medicine Hat Kiwanis hosting Christmas dinner, applications due Friday

10h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Compassionate Friends' offer peer support for bereaved in Medicine Hat

Dec 11, 2024

Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Const. Hong… _{– interim MHPS chief Joe West}

The sudden attack on law enforcement is highlighting the importance of officer safety for the Medicine Hat Police Service.

Interim police chief Joe West says police officers in any community are not immune to any sort of violence, and says it is imperative training be kept up to date. West says officers typically find themselves on their own while on patrol, given the size of the city. Downtown patrol units tend to work in pairs or groups of three.

To keep themselves and members of the community safe, officers are given 20 hours of safety training per year, which include pepper spray training, control tactics (how officers make arrests), taser training and intervention. Officers also have up to 20 hours of firearm training available per year.

West says training is usually updated every two to three years due to how comprehensive the programs and training are. He says the police service is grateful for the community helping support their training, which could make all the difference for officers out on patrol.

“We’re very fortunate in Medicine Hat here to have the equipment available to us to make training scenarios as real as possible,” West says. “We’ve been very fortunate in that the community at times has offered us buildings and different venues to do our officer safety training so we can make that as realistic as possible, and again, we’ve been fortunate to be able to acquire the proper equipment to carry out that training, which is key to being successful.”

West also offered his condolences on behalf of the Medicine Hat Police Service.

“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Const. Hong and certainly our partners at the Toronto Police Service, all those community members.”