Following the revelation that now-accused serial killer Bruce McArthur was questioned by police in 2016 but let go, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders announced Friday he will pursue an independent investigation into his force’s handling of missing-persons cases.

Stressing that there is no higher priority “than the safety of the city and the confidence of the public,” Saunders announced the rare external probe following a week of mounting questions about his officers’ past handling of the case — foremost among them whether McArthur’s alleged string of murders could have been stopped earlier.

“My hope is that such a review will consider not only our investigative processes but take a hard look at systemic issues of bias of any kind. I believe these issues are serious enough to warrant a review,” Saunders said, adding that he “immediately” launched a professional standards review after the past encounter with McArthur came to light “to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Saunders also said he was finalizing plans for the creation of a dedicated missing-persons unit, which will review and update missing-person reports on file as well as investigate high-priority new and historic cases.

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Man reported to Toronto police in 2016 that Bruce McArthur allegedly attempted to strangle him

Bruce McArthur was previously questioned, released by police in separate incident

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As reported by the Star, a man went to Toronto police in 2016 to say that McArthur had attempted to strangle him, according to two sources with knowledge of the incident. The man alleged that he was having a consensual sexual encounter with McArthur in a parked car when he suddenly began choking him, a police source said.

The man fought him off, and immediately made his way to a nearby Toronto police division. However, McArthur followed suit and told police that the man was overreacting, the source said. McArthur was let go.

The following year, Andrew Kinsman and Selim Esen disappeared. The two men are now among the six McArthur is accused of killing; Dean Lisowick, another alleged McArthur victim, disappeared between 2016 and 2017.

The 2016 incident appears to be the second time McArthur came into contact with police in the years before he was charged with first-degree murder. Sources told the Star McArthur was questioned prior to the incident, around the time Toronto police launched Project Houston, an investigation into three missing men that began in November 2012 and was closed 18 months later because there was no evidence to suggest criminal activity.

McArthur is now charged in the deaths of two of those three missing men: Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam and Majeed Kayhan.

Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said the service “will not comment on who we may or may not have spoken to during Project Houston.”

On Wednesday, Det. Sgt. Hank Idsinga, the lead homicide investigator on the case, revealed that he had initiated an internal investigation into possible police misconduct after he came upon “concerning” information regarding “the actions of some officers in a previous occurrence” involving McArthur. Idsinga did not provide any further detail.

McArthur’s apparent decision to go to police after the 2016 incident echoes his move, more than a decade before, to directly confront the authorities in the face of potential allegations of assault. In 2001, after he hit a man numerous times with metal pipe, it was McArthur himself who went to police saying he may have hurt someone.

McArthur later pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, and as a condition of his sentence was barred from Toronto’s Gay Village and from contacting male sex workers.

The details of the 2016 incident align with an account from Geoffrey Davis, who told the Star earlier this week that he has a friend who was assaulted by McArthur. In that incident, Davis’s friend, whom he did not identify, said McArthur started choking him unexpectedly during a sexual encounter. The friend told him he went to the police immediately after it happened, though he does not know the date of the incident.

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Saunders’ move for an external investigation comes in addition to an ongoing internal review of how the force handles missing-persons cases, which was launched late last year. Earlier this week, Mayor John Tory and Toronto police board chair Andy Pringle said they supported the launch of an external review.

The circumstances of the alleged misconduct in connection to the “concerning” past behaviour mentioned by Idsinga are not clear.

Generally, in a situation where there is an alleged assault, paperwork in the form of an occurrence report should be filed. In the case of any sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, solved or unsolved, including false allegations, the police officer in charge of an investigation must also submit what’s called a ViCLAS report — the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System, is a national database for tracking violent offenders and offences.

In addition, all homicides and attempted homicides solved or unsolved must be reported, as well as missing-persons cases where circumstances indicate a strong possibility of foul play. All this then becomes searchable on a national basis, and reports in the system are continually analyzed against other cases, in attempt to establish any possible linkages with other cases across Canada.

Read more: Opinion | Photos of alleged killer may be upsetting, but they are part of the story

McArthur, a 66-year-old former landscaper, is facing six charges of first-degree murder in the deaths Kinsman, Esen, Lisowick, Kayhan, Navaratnam, and Soroush Mahmudi. The men began disappearing from the area of the Church-Wellesley Village in 2010.

Police have found the dismembered human remains of seven individuals in the planters, three of whom have since been identified through forensic testing: Kinsman through fingerprint evidence, and Navaratnam and Mahmudi through dental records. DNA testing is underway to identify the remaining four sets of human remains.

In a news conference earlier this week, Idsinga took the exceedingly rare step of releasing a photo of a deceased man who police believe is McArthur’s seventh victim, but who investigators have not yet been able to identify. Tips have since poured in, but police have not yet announced that he has been identified.

While Idsinga would not reveal the source of the photo of the dead man, police sources have told the Star investigators have gathered reams of evidence in the case, including digital images. Photos of dead men were found on McArthur’s computer, according to a police source.

In his statement Friday, Saunders also said that he has launched a professional standards review of the deaths of Tess Richey and Alloura Wells, both of whom went missing last year and were later found dead.

In both cases, “serious questions have arisen that concern the community and me,” Saunders said.

With files from Kenyon Wallace and Jayme PoissonWendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

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