Toronto police searching for suspect in hit-and-run that injured cyclist

Toronto police are looking for a suspect wanted in connection with a hit-and-run downtown on the night of Aug. 25. It happened in the area of Dundas Street East and River Street.

Police say a cyclist was struck by a ‘scooter-style motorcycle’ at around 11:45 p.m.

Dashcam video shared with Global News by personal injury lawyer David Shellnutt shows the moment the collision occurred.

“The motorcyclist had cut off our client and our client gestured displeasure at him,” he told Global News’ Shallima Maharaj during an interview Wednesday.

“You can see the motorcyclist in the motor vehicle lane yelling, presumably at our client, and then he makes a move into the bike lane and then chases after our client, hits him…we say intentionally.”

Shellnutt says his client sustained serious injuries as a result of what happened. At one point on the dashcam video, Good Samaritans can be seen rushing to the scene to provide assistance.

“He was hospitalized at a downtown hospital, suffered a broken clavicle and spinal fractures,” he said. “That is just the immediate injury.”

Police say the cyclist, whose identity Global News is protecting, was heading east on Dundas West when he was struck.

“We represent, unfortunately, a ton of cyclists with serious similar injuries,” said Shellnutt.

“These things are lifelong, they linger on, they require thousands of dollars in treatment, years and years.”

With more than two weeks having gone by, police are turning to the public for assistance with tracking down the suspect. One factor making that more challenging is that the vehicle in question did not have licence plates.

“Licence plates are a huge way that we operate. That’s how we identify vehicles. And it’s also possible that this person doesn’t have insurance, otherwise they’d have licence plates,” said Toronto Police Const. Sean Shapiro.

Shapiro says the vehicle they’re looking for was not a conventional motorcycle, referring to it as ‘scooter-style.’

The vehicle is described as black or silver, and the driver was seen wearing a yellow flip shield helmet at the time.