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It's still not exactly clear what happened at Victoria Park and Finch late Wednesday night.

But it's evident what occurred at the end of that very long evening - two pedestrians were in hospital, two suspects were in custody and the busy intersection was shut down until the early morning.

The drama appears to have started when police observed a minivan driving erratically on southbound Vic Park around 11pm. They began pursing the vehicle, but as the driver tried to navigate the wet roads at increasingly higher speeds, the inevitable happened - he lost control of the car, which went careening into two bystanders.

A 22-year-old man was rushed to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre with a broken arm, a broken femur and other leg injuries. A 19-year-old man wound up in North York General with minor complaints.

Two suspects were apprehended at the scene.

The busy Scarborough intersection was closed all night while investigators tried to reconstruct the events. The smashed vehicle was finally towed away just after 7am Thursday, and the roadway was reopened for the morning rush.

The Special Investigations Unit, the civilian agency that probes serious incidents involving police, has designated one subject officer and four witness officers, and is asking anyone who saw what happened to call them at (416) 622-1925.

“Our primary concern here is were these two men hurt because of police action?" questioned the SIU's Rose Bliss. "(We will) conduct an independent investigation into all of the circumstances surrounding this incident, and then allow the director to make a decision whether there are grounds to believe any type of criminal offence occurred on behalf of the officers.”

It's the latest incident in an ongoing controversy about police chases in residential areas. Cops argue they have to be allowed to pursue and catch criminals who are trying to avoid them.

But some officials and residents insist the danger to the public outweighs that need, and such high speed chases should be called off when it appears innocent lives may be threatened.

Should police cruisers be restricted from chasing suspects through residential neighbourhoods? To vote in our WebPoll, click here.

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He killed his wife with a dumbbell in a fit of rage – then immediately called 911 crying for help to save her. Now the man who committed that ruthless act has learned his fate.

Mel Bruni was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail in a Toronto courtroom on Thursday. The 44-year-old father had been convicted of manslaughter in the slaying of his spouse Carmela on Christmas Day 2002.

It took two years for the court to render a verdict, and there was another delay in the sentencing, which was supposed to take place last week.

The judge called the attack “vicious and violent”, and there’s little dispute it was both. The 39-year-old mother was struck with the 5-pound weight at least 20 times.

Bruni called 911 and made a tearful confession to the operator, who immediately dispatched an ambulance to the family’s Oakmeadow Blvd. home. But it was too late – Carmela later succumbed to her injuries in hospital.

Bruni was originally charged with murder, but had insisted his wife tried to hit him with the heavy weight first. The couple’s marriage had been going into a breakdown for some time, when the December 25th argument erupted into violence.

He claimed he’d reacted out of passion, and wasn’t in control at the time of the killing. But there was evidence the jury never heard.

It indicated Bruni stopped his attack long enough to remove his three-year-old boy from the scene, put him to bed, then return to resume the assault.

The victim’s relatives, who were furious at the lesser charge, are equally convinced that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

“It's not enough,” said the victim’s brother Armando Venditti. “Her life was priceless, obviously, and we feel that it was basically a slap on the wrist.”

Her other brother, Tony, expressed a similar frustration.

“It was a slap in the face,” he said.

Cab driver beaten by four or five


A group of thugs beat and pistol-whipped a cab driver and mugged a couple walking home Monday night.

Peel police say they believe the same four or five men are responsible for both crimes.

The couple, a 47-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man, were approached by a man armed with a handgun on Hiberton Crescent in the area of Sandalwood Parkway and Chinguacousy Road at 10 p.m. the man grabbed the woman's purse. Three or four other men, one also armed with a handgun, demanded cash from the man. He said he didn't have any and they ran away.

Less than two hours later, at 11:40 p.m., a 35-year-old Mississauga man was driving his Golden Taxi when he went to Navigator Drive in the south end of the city to pick up a fare. While waiting for the fare he was approached by a group of men. One of them engaged him in conversation, then pulled out a handgun.

The victim was beaten and pistol-whipped, pulled from the taxi, dragged between two houses and continually beaten until cash and some of his belongings were taken from him. The robbers ran to an awaiting green Dodge Caravan on Spinnaker Crescent and escaped. The victim was taken to hospital and treated for a broken nose, bruising and soreness, according to police.

The van had been reported stolen from Brampton and 30 minutes after the cabbie was beaten, the van was involved in a "pump-and-run" at a local gas station. The van has not yet been recovered.

Police are looking for four or five suspects described only as black, approximately 20 years, all wearing dark clothing. One was wearing a cloth over his face similar to a bandanna.