THORNHILL, Ont. — The lineup was long, the cold was biting and most of them didn’t know Sgt. Ryan Russell personally, but hundreds of people turned out Sunday to pay their respects to the family of the Toronto police officer killed while trying to stop a stolen snowplow.
Russell’s wife, now a single mother to their two-year-old son, was said to be comforted by the show of support from police officers, other emergency responders and members of the public moved by the tragedy.
“Mrs. Russell is a very brave woman,” said Toronto Police Services Board chairman Alok Mukherjee.
“She is holding up very well. She has been strengthened by the support that she has received from all across the service and all across the community...They are a very courageous family.”
Russell, 35, was crushed by the stolen snowplow early Wednesday morning and died of his injuries soon after in hospital.
Richard Kachkar, 44, is charged with first-degree murder in Russell’s death and remains in hospital recovering from being shot during his arrest.
A lineup for Russell’s visitation began to form well before it was set to being at 1 p.m. despite an extreme cold weather alert issued by the city of Toronto for the Greater Toronto Area.
Temperatures plummeted into the negative double digits and with the wind chill it felt colder than -20 C. Gloveless hands were rendered immobile within minutes of exposure, wind that sometimes whipped through the crowd chilled people to the bone, but no complaints could be heard.
Through the afternoon a steady stream of people flocked to a funeral home north of Toronto to pay their respects. Peter DeGroote was one of numerous local residents to attend.
“They do a tremendous job,” he said of the police. “We have to do our part to show our support because they put their lives on the line every single day.”
Const. Daniela Bianchi, who worked with Russell for a few years on the guns and gangs task force, was visibly upset as she spoke about memories of her colleague.
“We miss him very much,” she said.
“(He was) wonderful, caring, giving. He was here to protect everybody. He joined this job and sadly he died doing exactly what he wanted to do: protect everybody.”
Several Toronto-area politicians came to honour the slain officer, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Julian Fantino, the MP for Vaughan, Ont.
Fantino, a former Ontario Provincial Police commissioner and former Toronto police chief, said he has been to too many funerals over the years for officers killed in the line of duty.
“Every one of them is something that I think just renews the hurt, the trauma, the sorrow,” he said.
“The more people you meet who knew (Russell), everyone has such wonderful things to say about him as a human being — a great family man and also an excellent police officer. The sense of loss and the deep hurt is quite raw.”
A retired Toronto firefighter who declined to give his name, said he felt it was important that he come to represent the fire service.
“As a first responder, retired, I understand the whole concept of going to work without the reasonable assurance you’re coming home,” he said.
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said the support and sympathy expressed for Russell and his family have been “overwhelming.”
“The show of emotion for our officer who made the ultimate sacrifice means so much to all of us who serve and protect the city of Toronto,” he said in a statement released Sunday.
Russell will be honoured Tuesday at a funeral at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It’s likely to draw thousands of mourners, including police officers from all over Canada and the U.S.