A Toronto police officer is dead and another man is in hospital with gunshot wounds after the driver of a stolen snowplow went on a rampage across downtown Toronto early Wednesday.

Sgt. Ryan Russell, 35, was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital with no vital signs after he was hit by the snowplow just before 6 a.m. on Avenue Rd.

“This is the worst of days,” a sombre Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said outside the hospital shortly before 10 a.m. as he confirmed Russell had died of his injuries.

An 11-year veteran of the force, Russell was married with a 2-year-old son, said a visibly upset Blair. His father was a retired Toronto police officer, he said.

Flags at City Hall and all civic centres have been lowered to half-mast, Mayor Rob Ford said.

“His bravery and service to the City of Toronto will not be forgotten,” Ford said in a statement.

At an afternoon news conference at Police Headquarters Blair said that today is a day for mourning. “This is a great loss for us,” Blair told reporters. “We all mourn together.”

Russell was “a hero who went out this morning to do his job.”

“I know today when it first went across the radio that a police officer had been hurt at least 6,000 families’ hearts skipped a beat.”

Blair encouraged his officers to go home and provide comfort to their own family members. “Today we have seen the price some have paid. It’s important to go home and hug our kids cause there’s a little boy who doesn’t have a a father.”

The driver of the stolen snowplow was also taken to St. Michael’s Hospital after being shot by police in a takedown on Keele St. between Annette St. and Humberside Ave.

It was not immediately clear how badly the driver of the snowplow had been injured. Witnesses said he was shot at least once and possibly as many as three times.

Paramedics were working on him for some time before he was taken away in an ambulance.

The incident began around 4:15 a.m. when a barefoot man commandeered a snowplow at 1 Cole St., near Dundas and Parliament Sts.

Click here for a timeline of the snowplow incident (pdf)

Peter Tolias, the president of Tolias Landscaping and Plowing, the company that owns the plow, described what followed as “a two-hour rampage” through city streets before police finally cornered the driver.

Tolias said two of his employees were working beside the vehicle, a heavy duty Chevy pickup truck with an attached plow and salter, when a “guy with no shoes” jumped in and sped off.

“He was barefoot and just came running and jumped in,” said Tolias, 29.

Tolias’s general manager Richard Eros used the GPS tracking system on the truck to help police trail it as it sped west, smashing into at least 15 parked cars on the way.

“He was on a two-hour rampage. Nobody could stop him,” said Tolias, adding that at one point, he almost cornered the stolen plow himself.

By 6 a.m., police had tracked the snowplow to Avenue and Davenport Rds. Russell was struck by the snowplow outside his cruiser and fell to the street.

The plow also rammed the front entrance of a Ferrari and Maserati dealership on Avenue Rd., just south of Davenport, leaving structural damage and shattered glass. A taxi was struck twice.

Manager Robert Vacca said he wasn’t sure what the driver was attempting to do, and could not confirm reports Russell attempted to stop the plow outside the dealership.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said of the officer’s death.

Shots were fired at the scene, the Special Investigations Unit confirmed.

Russell, a member of the Guns and Gangs Task Force, had been promoted to sergeant just six months ago and moved to 52 Division downtown, said Const. Wendy Drummond.

It was just after 7 a.m., still dark, when Christian Morgan watched from his third floor window on Keele S., south of Annette, as police confronted a man in a stolen snowplow that had crashed into his front lawn.

Police had swarmed the snowplow, “smashing the glass on the passenger side” first. “The driver hit the gas and it lurched forward a few metres. I heard shots fired, a few shots,” Morgan said.

At one point, said Morgan, he heard someone yell, “Get that rifle off of him” but who it referred to, he didn’t know.

A second officer was slightly injured during that confrontation. He was treated in hospital and released in early afternoon.

“There was a commotion outside the snowplow.” Whether that involved the injured officer, Morgan wasn’t sure.

Morgan, a 30-year-old family support worker at an Ontario Early Years Centre nearby, saw a police officer with a gun “pointing at the ground.”

But when police were moving the driver of the stolen plow out of the cab, “he was hurt. They were being very careful with him. A firefighter indicated he had a puncture in his neck.”

The injured driver was put in an ambulance, said Morgan.

“It was terrifying,” he said.

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Morgan had woken to the sound of sirens and then saw the snowplow crashed into a garbage truck carrying two city workers. An armoured police vehicle moved in, pinning the plow to the garbage truck. Officers climbed from the top of the armoured truck to the stolen snowplow, he said.

SIU, which investigates incidents involving police shooting, detailed 12 investigators and four forensic investigators to the Keele and Annette site. They were called in by police at 7:24 a.m.

“A number of shots were fired by police” at Keele and Annette Sts, said SIU spokesman Frank Phillips. “The driver sustained gun shot injuries.”

Four civilian witnesses have been interviewed so far, and the SIU is looking for more witnesses and is asking anyone who might have seen the incident to contact the SIU. The SIU has identified several police officers to be questioned -- a police officer who is believed to have shot the driver of the snow plow along with nine other officers who may have witnessed the shooting, Phillips said.

Homicide officers have taken over the investigation at Avenue Rd., where Russell was attacked. The driver of the snow plow is now in police custody. Charges have not yet been laid.

Russell’s death “is a reality of policing,” said Michael McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. His face wracked with grief, McCormack said he knew Russell. “This is our worst nightmare.”

“He was doing his job, in a very dangerous situation,” Blair said of Russell. “He put his life on the line and tragically he lost his life doing his job.”

“Sgt. Russell’s death is a grim reminder that we should never take the dangers of policing for granted,” Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said in a statement. “Let us always be grateful for the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who uphold the law and keep us safe.”

Blair said at the news conference it was too soon to know about funeral details, but the police service would respect the wishes of the family. He also added that grieving family members would get support from the police service as will grieving colleagues at 52 Division.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff expressed “shock and sadness” at the loss, offering his “heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Sgt. Russell and to the entire Toronto Police Service.”

Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor David C. Onley also offered his condolences to the family, adding that Russell’s death in the line of duty is “a sobering reminder of the dangers that all police officers face every day.”

Officers were “coming in in tears” to the hospital to see Russell’s family, said Drummond. “It is very sombre and quiet.”

Russell was a “hugely respected officer” with the guns and gangs task force before his promotion, said McCormack.

“He was a very hard-working, exceptional police officer. He was promoted fairly young because of the diligent police officer that he was,” said McCormack.

“I can’t imagine what that’s like (for his relatives) coming from a policing family,” said McCormack, himself the son of a former Toronto police chief. “You know what risk your family faces every day. It’s that thing you don’t talk about; you’ve always got it at the back of your mind.”

“Police leaders know that when we send out our officers to fulfill their duties, we do so knowing full well that they put their lives on the line,” said Chief Robert Herman, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

“His death in the line of duty represents the greatest sacrifice that an officer can make.”

Initially, police were “just going to wait ’til he parked,” Tolias said of the runaway stolen plow, but when the plow started smashing into vehicles and then Russell was injured, “it turned into a chase to get this guy.”

Pierpaolo Miele, a 23-year-old plumber, said he was driving south on Keele St. when he saw the plow moving erratically.

The plow hit his car, said Miele, and then crashed into the garbage truck and stopped.

Avenue Road remained closed during the afternoon commute Wednesday as police continued their investigation.

with files from Jayme Poisson, Jennifer Yang, Robert Benzie and Vanessu Lu

• Did you see the snowplow incident this morning? Send us your tips and photos at webmaster@thestar.ca

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