Photojournalism is one of those things, your always looking for a creative shot in a limited environment.

You can’t control the lighting, the orientation of things, the stances people take or the subject matter overall.

Unlike many other forms of photography, photojournalism is all about capturing the moment and doing so in a manner that describes what’s going.

After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and if you have a picture with a column of text, your little 1000 word newspaper article might actually be more like 2000 words.

During the early morning hours of August 29th, an altercation between two individuals saw the police arrive. Naturally both parties were separated and taken into custody at the scene.

Everything was going as usual, an ambulance was on the way to look at the parties and their facial injuries, they were giving their own statements to police when suddenly, one of the men involved started convulsing and dropped to the ground.

The ambulance was rushed over, but the man had stopped breathing. Despite all the emergency personnel on scene and their best efforts they were not able to save the man.

In this case the police more than likely had nothing to do with the mans sudden collapse, but because he died while in police custody protocol naturally requires that the SIU investigate so see if there was more that officers could do.

This one photo I feel describes the scene well, a shoe and roll of paper are seen on the sidewalk, all remnants of the fight and the bloodied men’s attempt to clean up. Even more blood is visible smeared on the hood of the police cruiser probably from when one of the parties was cuffed and searched with belongings resting on the hood of the car.

To top it all off several officers stand in place, chatting while protecting the scene encase in crime tape on Toronto longest, busiest and most brightly lit street, Yonge St.

Finding those photo was not easy, but once it was in my sight, I knew I had to take it.

Via Flickr:
An altercation between two men spilled out from an establishment onto Yonge St near Elm. The police arrived at the scene and took the men into custody, moments later one collapsed to the ground and stopped breathing.

While police involvement was minimal, anytime death or serious injury occur involving police actions or when a civilian is in custody it is mandatory that the Ontario Special Investigations Unit probe the circumstances surrounding the event and if necessary charge any officers involved.

This was one of those unfortunate but all to common accidents involving a cyclist and vehicle on a foggy morning just as the first rays of dark blue daylight were popping into the sky.

It’s not all that often that one single picture explains the whole scene but this one pretty much sums it up.

A 41 division officer writes a report, the driver of the involved vehicle sits with a distressed look on the curn as shock sets in and all the while a mangled bicycle, shoes bag and towel lay in the road.

If you look closely you’ll even see damage on the windshield of the car, a roll of crime tape on a cable box and the nearest cross street to the crash scene with crime tape strung across.

As chilling as this image may be, it only lasted for a couple seconds before the officer walked away, the driver was taken for a statement and scene expanded removing this vantage point view.

Photojournalism, it’s all about that split second!

Via Flickr:
The driver of a vehicle sits in shock on Kennedy Rd near Bertrand Ave after a serious collision with a cyclist. The tattered remains of the cyclists bicycle and other paraphernalia is visible scattered across the street as a 41 Division Toronto Police Officer takes notes.