“I could see they had recovered a firearm,” says Warnock, by the time he arrived on scene. When Mansuri told him to speak to the agitated woman who kept approaching him, Warnock took her to the side. “She didn’t want to speak to me much, but she said she wanted to get her purse from the car.”

Warnock took her to the car, which turned out to be a taxi, parked about 200 metres away on a side street. As the woman was getting her purse, Warnock spoke to the cab driver, since he still wasn’t sure who the woman was.

The cab driver told her he was waiting in the cab with the woman and about 10 minutes earlier two men had gotten out of the cab.

“I know a clue when I hear one,” says Warnock, who understood immediately that the woman was an accomplice of the two men who had tried to rob the store. She was arrested by Warnock on the spot.

The crime

As the officers on scene, each played a part in piecing together the crime.

Two men and a woman arrived in a taxi close to the West Indian grocery store. They told the cab driver to wait at a side street as the two men got out of the car. The woman stayed in the taxi.

The two men are alleged to have entered the grocery store and demanded money. The store clerk resisted, at which point the men jumped the counter and began fighting with the clerk. One suspect took out a revolver and a scuffle broke out. The victim tussled with the suspects and managed to grab a hold of the revolver.

A woman, the complainant, was in the store at the time, witnessed the crime, ran out and called 9-1-1.

As the suspects and victim fought over the gun, two shots were fired. The victim managed to run out of the store, chased by the suspects. One suspect managed to catch the victim and pulled him down on the sidewalk, trying to get the gun back.

This was when Constables Mansuri and Dianconu arrived on scene and, amidst the chaos, managed to control all three men.

“It was a very good call from the complainant,” says Mansuri, grateful she was watching to make sure officers knew who the victim was, as well as updating the dispatch operator on the phone. “Lots of credit to her and all the information she gave.”