TORONTO — The family of a man found dead in a car that was parked outside a Toronto hospital for days is demanding answers.
Toronto Police and hospital staff conducted a “thorough sweep” of the grounds on Dec. 8 while investigating a bomb threat later deemed not credible, according to an internal hospital memo obtained by the Star.
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Police were then called back to the hospital on Dec. 10 after a man’s body was found inside a vehicle that had been parked just steps away from the emergency room doors for three days. The man has been identified as 41-year-old Thomas Choy.
Toronto Police Spokesperson Stephanie Miceli said the area outside the emergency department is highly travelled, so responding officers may not have deemed the vehicle suspicious or out of the ordinary. She also said officers had no reason to search vehicles on the grounds when they were investigating a bomb threat inside the building.
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Investigators told Choy’s family that while the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear, security footage from the hospital showed a driver exiting the vehicle and entering the ER on Sunday. Choy, however, was not seen leaving the vehicle. His sister, Lang Choy, said the car belongs to her other brother but that he was not the driver, CityNews reports.
“How could a hospital leave a car unattended for three whole days, not even one parking ticket, not even one person bothered to check to ask the car to move, or ask the owner of the car [to move it],” said Choy. “There is so much to be said about the hospital’s protocols, the security company, and the police, knowing that there was a threat and they neglected [to look in] a parked car.”
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Choy said she reached out to the hospital with questions but has yet to receive a response.
“I can’t stop thinking, what if he was still alive, slowly dying in the cold? And for how long?” she told the Star. “Maybe they could have helped him.”
It is still unknown who called in the bomb threat or if there was any connection to Thomas Choy. Toronto Police and the coroner’s office have both launched investigations.
