“These are nefarious individuals.”

That’s how Ottawa Police Insp. Mark Patterson described the five men arrested Friday during a dramatic takedown outside a Lone Star restaurant.

Patterson says the arrests were the culmination of an investigation into gun crime that began in January. One of the suspects had been wanted on an outstanding warrant in connection with a shooting near Algonquin College last summer.

Four men were in a car in the Baseline and Fisher area Friday, at around 1:15 p.m., when police attempted to stop them. The men tried to flee the scene at first by ramming the police vehicle, but they were pinned into the parking lot of the strip mall there, just across the street from the Experimental Farm. They got out of the car and ran, and were chased by officers before being arrested.

One officer suffered minor cuts to his hand during the arrests, another ruptured his Achilles tendons during the chase and is in hospital for surgery, Patterson said.

“He collapsed in the middle of the street and we actually had a citizen stop and help him and actually gave the officer a cell phone to call 911 and get an ambulance there,” he said. “It’s kind acts like that that shows encouragement for our officers.”

According to a news release from Ottawa Police, the five men are facing 92 criminal charges and Patterson says there could be more. The investigation is ongoing.

“These people that we arrested, they are high-profile offenders within our city,” Patterson said. “These are very nefarious individuals who are brazen in relation to the shootings that we believe they are responsible for.”

Patterson says, when they were arrested, two loaded handguns were seized, along with a quantity of cocaine. Search warrants at the suspects’ homes turned up two more guns and quantities of other drugs, including crack, marijuana, and fentanyl, as well as cash.

Haider Affat, 29; Grace M’Pemo, 22; Abdulaziz Al-Enzi, 31; Abraham Bihi, 28; and Keyonte Fletcher, 26 were scheduled to appear in court Saturday.

Abraham Bihi had been wanted in connection with a shooting near Algonquin College on August 26, 2017. A 25-year-old man was injured in that shooting and a second man wanted in connection with that incident was arrested earlier this year.

Abdulaziz Al-Enzi had been arrested late last year in a major drug and gun bust in the National Capital Region called “Project Sabotage.” Al-Enzi had been out on bail before being arrested Friday.

“I can unequivocally say our city is a safer place as a result of these guys being incarcerated at this time,” Patterson said. “If it wasn’t for the intelligent work of our guns and gangs unit, our drug unit, our Direct Action Response Team members, members of the intelligence section, we wouldn’t be holding these guys accountable.”