A Toronto police officer is being hailed as a hero after video of him arresting a terror suspect without firing a single shot went viral. 

The police officer stared down the suspect and repeatedly ordered him to "get down", keeping his cool while the suspect pointed what appeared to be a gun at him and yelled "kill me" and “shoot me in the head.”

His orders eventually got through to the suspect, who at one point drops the item in his hand to the ground, raises his hands in the air and gets down on his knees in submission. 

Video of the confrontation was subsequently posted to Twitter and quickly spread across social media, with many users pointing to the officer's behaviour as an example of how police can manage life-or-death situations without resorting to deadly force.   

The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Alek Minassian, killed 10 and injured 15 when he mowed down pedestrians on a busy Toronto pavement. 

“This officer looked at what was going on and determined he could handle it the way that he did. People are right, this guy is a hero," the head of the Toronto Police Association later told local newspaper The Globe and Mail.