Toronto's finest will soon be patrolling TTC stations.
Police announced on Thursday, the same day they named a suspect in last week's shooting at Osgoode subway station, that about three dozen officers would take to the transit system's subways, buses, streetcars, and stations come May in an effort to keep riders safer.
Curt John, 21, is accused of firing several shots on a busy platform at Osgoode station last Thursday - striking a 19-year-old man and sending him to hospital with bullet wounds to the abdomen and leg. Investigators released his picture and name after video surveillance at Downsview and Osgoode stations helped identify him.
It's not the first such incident - last spring a woman was shot in the leg on a subway car as it approached Spadina station.
The police would join TTC special constables who already patrol stations and vehicles - they carry batons, not firearms, and have the authority to make arrests. Transit officials already plan to increase the number of constables from 103 to 176 by 2011, and they said there's no indication police would be replacing any of them.
John, described as black, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds with an earring in his left ear, is also wanted in connection with the shooting death of Dominic Shearer-Hanomansingh, the city's 37th murder victim of last year.