A male was shot with “sock rounds” by Toronto police after allegedly attacking multiple officers with a knife.

Officers already “fairly close by” responded to calls from witnesses at Sherbourne and Dundas Sts. at 7:47 p.m. Wednesday night about a person with a knife, said Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson.

The suspect sustained non-life-threatening injuries, but was taken to a trauma centre as part of protocol, said Hopkinson.

“We deployed what’s called ‘less-lethal use of force,’ so we have a shotgun armed with sock rounds,” said Hopkinson. “It’s meant to incapacitate the person, and that’s exactly what it did. He’s been placed under arrest. In any situation like this where we use a taser or a less-lethal shotgun, we have the person checked out medically.”

A sock gun is a regular shotgun that, instead of bullets, has been loaded with a kind of round that inflicts pain but does not penetrate the body. It’s also referred to as an impact round or a bean bag gun.

The sock gun was introduced as part of the changes Toronto police made following a string of fatal police shootings, including the death of teenager Sammy Yatim.

According to police, witnesses allegedly saw one man attack another. The suspect then produced a knife and began chasing his victim with it. He was still chasing his victim when police arrived, but turned his knife on the officers after they asked him to stop and began running towards them.

“When they got on scene, they saw that the suspect was still armed with a knife and was still chasing the alleged victim,” said Hopkinson. “The officers made demands for the male to stop; however, he turned his attention to the officers and started running towards them.”

The suspect was shot shortly after.

The use of less-lethal force in the form of sock rounds came to Toronto in 2016.

“In the past, we’ve had tools that we use to defend ourselves or to affect an arrest. We have handcuffs, we have pepper spray and we have expandable batons,” said Hopkinson. “What happens when you get to a point where you’re dealing with a threat that is greater than those leading up to somebody being shot, but you wish to use a less lethal tool?

“With these less-lethal options — taser or sock rounds — we have the ability to end a potentially dangerous situation by using less than lethal force,” said Hopkinson.

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Police have not released a description of the suspect, but confirmed that he is in custody.

Hopkinson said police will be hosting a news conference with further details.