Wednesday's reaction to the shooting of Constable Patrick Ferdinand by robbers trying to make a getaway was first shock, then fear for the officer's life, then dread of the fallout - the analysis and guilt and race-tinged finger-pointing and the sense of a city's loss of innocence.

When we heard of the heroic exploits of cab driver Mohammad Nematian-Zaroor and another motorist who manoeuvred their cars to help the hobbled police cruiser come to a halt on the busy Highway 401, which of us didn't swell with human pride and hoped we, too, would respond with similar courage and civic duty?

JEFF GOODE / TORONTO STAR / BEATING THE BUSHES: Police officers search yesterday for clues in the shooting of Constable Patrick Ferdinand.