Toronto police have arrested a man in connection with suspicious packages found at Broadview Station this week.
The packages led police to close the subway station, located at Broadview and Danforth Avenues, on Monday and Tuesday mornings.
Police responded to a call reporting that a suspicious package had been spotted in the bus bay of the station around 6 a.m. on March 18. The station was evacuated and remained closed for nearly five hours until officials determined that the package was not hazardous. Trains, buses and streetcars were forced to bypass the station during the closure.
The following day, a second package was spotted and the station was closed for about three hours. A man was arrested just before the second closure, according to a Toronto Police Service news release.
The closures caused an inconvenience to many people who work and live near the station, including Steven Jackson, who was on his way to his job Monday at The Yoga Sanctuary’s Danforth Avenue location.
Steven Jackson witnessed the closure at Broadview Station on Monday morning on his way to work at The Yoga Sanctuary’s Danforth Avenue location. He said the clients’ stress levels were high as they entered the studio. (Isabel Terrell/Toronto Observer)
“We’re so close to the subway system, so it closed everything down,” said Jackson in an interview with The Toronto Observer. With so little information about the packages and the closure, there was a clear stress level in the studio as students entered their morning classes, he said.
Kamal Badri, 53, was arrested by Toronto Police on Tuesday in connection with the suspicious packages spotted at Broadview Station.
Kamal Badri, 53, of no fixed address, faces several charges, including two counts of public mischief. He was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.