Body cam footage appears to show moments before 16-year-old was shot by Toronto police

GRAPHIC WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised. Body camera footage appears to show the moments leading up to when Toronto police shot a 16-year-old boy.

Police body camera footage appears to show the deadly exchange of gunfire between Toronto police and a 16-year-old boy during a routine traffic stop in North York on Sunday.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Toronto police pulled the red Infiniti over near Sheppard Avenue West and Bathurst Street as the vehicle was missing its front licence plate.

A total of six people were in the vehicle when police pulled them over, the SIU says.

Video obtained by CTV News Toronto appears to start with one of the responding officers asking a young woman seated in the back of the car whether one of the passengers was her boyfriend.

The officer can then be seen pulling the latch to the front passenger seat, folding the seat forward to allow the occupants seated in the back seat to step out of the two-door Infiniti.

A young woman exits the vehicle first as the officer says “sorry, sorry, my bad.”

Soon after, a male, seated in the back, appears to lurch forward and pulls out a gun, firing toward the officer. The officer immediately backs away from the car, firing multiple rounds at the vehicle while shouting “gun, gun, gun.”

Images from the scene showed several bullet holes in the windshield of the vehicle.

Another vantage point of the shooting, as seen in security footage obtained by CTV News Toronto, appears to show an officer talking with the driver behind the wheel while a second officer stands at the opposite side of the car, standing beside two people.

The officer on the driver’s side suddenly backs away, firing their weapon at the car seconds before the second officer starts shooting from the rear.

The province’s police watchdog confirmed the 16-year-old died in hospital on Tuesday.

The SIU and Toronto police confirms the responding officers were not injured in the exchange.

Toronto police told CP24 on Tuesday the five other occupants of the vehicle, aged between 16 and 20 years old, are from Toronto or Brampton. They added that they were all arrested and face numerous charges. One of the youths was also charged with failure to comply with a release order.

None of the charges have been tested in court.

“The TPA continues to support our members who were involved in this tragic incident,” the Toronto Police Association (TPA) said in a statement to CP24. “There is little we can say given the ongoing SIU investigation. However, we can say that every use of force incident is an interaction between human beings, and they deeply impact our members.

“No police officer goes to work wanting to use force, let alone fire their weapon,” the TPA added.

With files from CP24’s Codi Wilson and CTV News Toronto’s Laura Sebben