Deltanine

TORONTO (CP) - In a city full of movie sets, morning commuters were witness to a real-life hostage-taking Wednesday as a police marksman fired a single shot through a gunman's head to end the brief drama outside the country's busiest downtown train station.

It was a stunning end to a terrifying sequence of events which began when Sugstan Anthony Brookes reportedly followed his estranged wife to a food court in the bottom of a nearby skyscraper and fired as patrons ducked for cover.

Upon emerging from the building, he grabbed an unfortunate passerby as a police officer approached and an ominous silence fell over what is normally a bustling tangle of pedestrians and taxis at the height of rush hour.

Investigators are now focusing on what might have been going through Brookes' mind when he held a sawed off shotgun to the head of a young woman for more than 40 minutes Wednesday.

"In this case, it's not so much a whodunit, but more, why it happened, how it occurred, and what all the circumstances were surrounding the officer's shooting of this man," said Rose Bliss, a spokeswoman for the Special Investigations Unit, which probes all cases of civilian deaths involving police.

Hundreds of horrified commuters watched Wednesday as police staged the dramatic standoff with Brookes, 45, from Ajax just east of the city.

Television cameras captured the heightening sequence of events including the moment the fatal shot struck the hostage-taker's head.

"I was dumbfounded. I didn't believe it. It's what you see on television. It doesn't happen in real life," said Susan Cormier, who works in a stockbrokers' office.

The hostage, Nicole Regis, 20, was left shaken but unharmed.

Earlier, Brookes fired several shots at his estranged wife, Marlene Brookes, as she made her way to work through the concourse of the TD Centre, one of the large bank towers that populate the city's financial district.

The shots missed the woman and sent terrified food-court patrons scuttling for cover.

She tripped during her flight from Brookes, and he caught her in front of a restaurant, police told the Hamilton Spectator. He beat her, opening a bloody gash in her forehead.

Bystanders staunched the flow of blood with towels and an apron. She received a few stitches to the head and was being kept in hospital for observation, police said.

Minutes after the gunfire was reported to police, an officer spotted the wanted man walking from the scene.

"He confronted the individual and immediately upon doing that, the suspect ran," said Police Chief Julian Fantino.

Brookes then grabbed a woman at random on the sidewalk just outside Toronto's Union Station.

Heavily armed tactical police officers surrounded the scene and spent about 40 minutes trying to negotiate with Brookes, a large, heavy-set man towering over six-feet in height.

They were unsuccessful.

Police said the marksman grew concerned the situation would escalate and others could be hurt. He fired a single shot, killing the suspect as hundreds of bewildered office workers frantically made cell-phone calls from the scene.

Police and ambulances moved in and the hostage was quickly ushered away.

"Literally, you could see his brain fly all over the place," said one man who watched the sniper's bullet find its mark.

"Like you see (such things) in a movie and you're all cool. It's not cool. It's not cool at all."

Police cleared out the area, leaving the commuter junction almost deserted at a time when thousands of workers make their way to their offices. The area was still nearly empty when the body was removed three hours later.

Fantino called the outcome "regrettable and unfortunate," but he added that there was no question in his mind that the officer had to take out the armed suspect.

"We had a situation that is very, very volatile, extremely dangerous. There was no choice," Fantino said.

"(Police) eliminated a very serious threat to citizens and themselves."

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which probes cases of serious injury or death involving police, was reviewing the killing.

The hostage-taker's estranged wife was not identified. Her family described the violent turn of events as disturbing.

"We came close to losing a family member," they said in a statement. "We are asking that you respect our privacy at this time. Our main concern is for our family member to get the appropriate care."

The family of the hostage thanked police for rescuing the woman.

The Ontario government took the opportunity to suggest that emergency procedures around the station -the central point for all rail traffic in the region -should be reviewed.