Brigadier with P.C. Vicki Montgomery on board. 




From the Toronto Star on Sunday.
Brigadier's death a loss
Mounted police horse mortally hurt in hit and run
Constable Kevin Bradfield recuperating at home
Feb. 26, 2006. 09:58 AM
RITA DALY
TORONTO STAR STAFF REPORTER

He was called the Gentle Giant, a majestic creature that did his job with aplomb, had a horse's sense of humour and was always willing to please.

Yet in the line of duty, Brigadier, an 8-year-old prize-winning Belgian cross with the Toronto mounted police unit, was violently struck in what police are calling a deliberate hit-and-run in Scarborough on Friday.

In an emotional and heartbreaking scene, the emergency task force unit was called in to shoot the animal after it suffered two broken legs and lay on the road in excruciating pain.

Police say Brigadier took the brunt of the vehicle's impact and in all likelihood saved his rider's life. Constable Kevin Bradfield, who joined the mounted unit last May, was thrown onto the road and suffered broken ribs and neck and leg injuries. He was treated at Scarborough Centenary hospital and is recuperating at home.

Although Sgt. Mike Puterbaugh of the mounted police unit said a horse's status as an enforcement officer is something to be determined, "when we're on the street, the horse wears a breast plate that would bear the Toronto police crest on it. That's the logo of the Toronto police service that serves the citizens of Toronto."

The devastating loss of Brigadier has upset and angered members of the mounted unit and those who knew the animal. Toronto police purchased him in 2001 from a commercial horse breeder in Listowel, Ont.

Brigadier was one of 28 horses and 40 officers that make up the city's mounted unit, originally founded in 1886 to control speeding horses and patrol outlying areas. Brigadier's remains were being sent to the University of Guelph for further investigation and to be cremated. His ashes will be returned to Toronto for a memorial service.

"I think the entire city of Toronto will be touched by the loss of this animal," said police Chief Bill Blair, who attended the scene Friday night.

Blair said the force will be investigating the event "very aggressively."

"It was hard to tell (Bradfield) his horse had to be put down," said Constable Chris Heard. "The horse saved his life and he knows that," Heard said.

Friday's incident happened around 7 p.m. as four mounted officers were patrolling an area on Lawrence Ave. E. at Kingston Rd. as part of a new community policing effort to control drugs and gun crime.

A citizen called their attention to a man at a TD Canada Trust ATM drive-through who was swearing at a driver in line ahead of him.

The officers approached the car and asked him to pull over, but the man drove off, eastbound on Lawrence Ave. As the officers rode to the north side of the street, the driver suddenly made a U-turn and came back, striking one of the officers and his horse before fleeing.

A heavily damaged van with horsehair embedded in the windshield was found abandoned nearby; the suspect was arrested shortly after at his home.

Dirk Sankersingh, 42, is charged with dangerous operation causing bodily harm and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. He made a brief appearance at Old City Hall courthouse yesterday. Dressed in an orange detainee's jumpsuit, the burly, tired-looking man conferred occasionally with his defence lawyer, Al Hart, from the prisoner's box.

At his lawyer's request, the court granted medical treatment for Sankersingh and remanded him in custody until tomorrow. Hart said Sankersingh suffers from a pre-existing bleeding ulcer and also has "an unspecified mental condition."

"This whole thing is a real tragedy," said Staff Inspector William Wardle, head of the mounted unit. "Everybody knows these horses, so it's devastating. Everyone's concerned about the officer as well; he's in a lot of discomfort."

The only other case Wardle could recall of a horse being killed while on duty was four years ago when Lancer was accidentally struck by a vehicle on Strachan Ave. near the CNE grounds and had to be put down. The officer was injured and off work for a month.

In an interview at the Horse Palace yesterday, Heard said he raced to Friday's scene with a horse trailer, escorted by six police cars, hoping to transport Brigadier back for emergency medical treatment.

"I could tell by looking at him he couldn't be saved."

Heard ended up transporting the other three horses — Blue Moon, Elvis and Viscount — back to the Horse Palace.

"I never heard such upset horses," Heard said. "Blue Moon was kicking up a storm so much, I had to stop three times to calm him down."

Heard said Brigadier had a magnetic personality and a true sense of playfulness.

Despite the tragedy, members of the mounted unit were out working yesterday, watching over a demonstration in downtown Toronto. Sitting atop a brown mare equipped with a visor, Sergeant Jim Patterson said Brigadier's sudden and tragic death was "very upsetting."

"We've seen horses injured before in minor ways, when they've been stabbed or hit by pedestrians. But to have a vehicle... kill a horse, that's pretty bad," Patterson said.

With files from Paul Choi

and Matthew Kwong

copyright Toronto Star