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Video: Police Arrest Man Who Shone Laser at Helicopter

Laser incidents on the rise in Canada.

Canadian police wasted no time apprehending a suspect who shone a bright laser at the Air2 police helicopter over Vaughn, Ontario, this week, using their infrared camera from on high to direct officers to a 19-year-old man’s location as he tried to evade arrest.

The entire episode was captured on police video from the helicopter as a group of three young men in a neighborhood can be seen in the video running from approaching police. One of the men is seen throwing an object, which turns out to be an air gun fitted with a laser scope.

While such a laser sight probably isn’t anywhere near as powerful as the handheld laser weapons that have been wreaking havoc on air crews in the skies over the United States for the last few years, it’s still illegal in Canada to shine a “bright light” into “navigable airspace.”

While laser strike incidents in Canada haven’t drawn as much attention as those in the United States, Transport Canada authorities say 443 such events were reported by pilots in 2013.

You can watch video of the arrest here.

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