{"id":161623,"date":"2018-04-26T00:11:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T04:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=161623"},"modified":"2018-04-26T00:11:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T04:11:25","slug":"cop-who-arrested-accused-in-van-attack-doesnt-want-to-be-hailed-as-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/26\/cop-who-arrested-accused-in-van-attack-doesnt-want-to-be-hailed-as-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Cop who arrested accused in van attack doesn’t want to be hailed as hero"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Const.<\/a>
Const. Ken Lam and his father David (David Lam\/ OMNI TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 A Toronto police officer\u00a0who\u00a0has earned international acclaim for the peaceful arrest of a man\u00a0accused\u00a0in a deadly van attack does not want to be hailed as a hero.<\/p>\n

Deputy police chief Peter Yuen said the officer, Const. Ken Lam, feels there are many first responders and members of the public\u00a0who\u00a0should be praised for their actions in the moments after a van mounted a sidewalk, killing 10 pedestrians and injuring 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to make sure that everyone understands he was not a hero, he was merely doing a job,\u201d Yuen told a news conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lam,\u00a0who\u00a0has been on the force for seven years, clearly exhibited and understood police training when he\u00a0arrested\u00a025-year-old Alek Minassian, the alleged driver of the van, the deputy chief added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could have turned into a very tragic situation for more people \u2014 for the\u00a0accused’s family and for officer Lam’s family, if (Lam) had opened fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Video footage of the interaction shows Lam talking to Minassian,\u00a0who\u00a0can be heard shouting, \u201cShoot me,\u201d and \u201cI have a gun in my pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t care, get down or you’ll get shot,\u201d Lam is heard shouting back.<\/p>\n

Lam, 42, is in \u201cgood spirits\u201d and has been off duty since the incident, taking time to recuperate, Yuen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time an officer goes through a traumatic experience … it is mandatory for the Toronto police service to have a debriefing and an aftercare program,\u201d Yeun said.<\/p>\n

The aftercare program will include a visit with a psychologist, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go through traumatic experiences there’s a cycle that you go through and ? some people can rationalize this and digest this in three days, some it’s three months, some will be a lifetime. For officer Lam it will be day by day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yuen said he has been in \u201cconstant contact\u201d with Lam since the arrest, even waking him up by text the last two mornings to ask how he is doing.<\/p>\n

The deputy chief said he met Lam about five years ago through an internal support network for police officers of East Asian heritage.<\/p>\n

Lam,\u00a0who\u00a0worked for several years as an engineer before becoming a police officer in his mid-30s, has made a name for himself among colleagues by spearheading charity campaigns or raising money for fellow officers in times of need, Yuen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that’s required, he’s there,\u201d Yuen said. \u201cYou don’t even have to ask, he just happens to have a nose for (charity), he’ll show up and say, ‘I’ll help you.\u201d’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 A Toronto police officer\u00a0who\u00a0has earned international acclaim for the peaceful arrest of a man\u00a0accused\u00a0in a deadly van attack …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":161626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[50277,1073,11079,49429,50278],"class_list":["post-161623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-ken-lam","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-police","tag-van-attack","tag-yonge-street","mauthors-peter-goffin","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}