Four police officers sent to hospital, two men arrested after Eglinton West incident

An incident in the west Toronto neighbourhood of Oakwood-Vaughan that started with a man jumping on a car ended with four police officers taken to hospital and two arrests Saturday night.

Some officers were already in the area of Oakwood Avenue and Eglinton Avenue West for crowd control at a peaceful, all-day demonstration - Bana on the Block, in support of local Black-owned businesses - when the unrelated incident occurred, police said.

There was a protest earlier in the day and it was about 25 to 30 people, and then at 8 p.m. it all of a sudden became unruly," Toronto police Const. Laura Brabant said.

At 7:55 p.m., a man jumped on a car, then down onto the street and an altercation with police occurred. The man was Tasered and arrested.

He jumped down from the car and was hit and Tased by the police," said Deja Williams, who witnessed and recorded the scene. Then a bystander tried to help him by trying to get the police off of him ... Things escalated quickly."

The bystander was also arrested, police said.

Seven officers in all were treated for injuries, including a female officer who was punched in the face and assessed for a concussion, Brabant said.

Cellphone video shared widely on social media showed a heavy police presence at the time of the incident, which some witnesses said was uncalled for.

Why did they need 50 cop cars for one man?" said a woman who attended the demonstration and requested anonymity in order to speak freely

Police said the presence was heavier than earlier in the day because the crowd became unruly," a term Brabant said covers situations such as not giving police enough space, yelling or intervening with an arrest or investigation.

Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1