The president of a Belleville, Ont., synagogue says “all hell broke loose” as a suspect and a police officer exchanged gunfire outside the building on Sunday night.
Norm Weddum, the president of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, said the members of his congregation were just sitting down for Yom Kippur service when the first volley of shots rang out.
“And, all of a sudden, there was ‘bang, bang, bang,’ and that was the first of the shots being fired, and we’re kind of all in a state of shock. Like, ‘What was that? Was that shooting?’” he told CP24 Monday morning.
As many as 25 people were in the temple at the time and Weddum said some members headed to the doors to investigate before another round of shots were fired.
“At that point I said, ‘This is definitely shots being fired,’” he recalled. “We ushered everyone back into the sanctuary, and I closed the doors because I didn’t want to have a visual target if anyone was coming to the front of the building. So, we closed the wooden doors that lead into the auditorium and the sanctuary, and I yelled to everyone to get down, right onto the floor.”
No one inside the synagogue at the time of the shooting was injured. The SIU said as many as 30 shots were fired in the exchange of gunfire.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has said a Belleville police officer was outside the temple near Victoria and Bleecker avenues at approximately 7 p.m. when there was an “exchange of gunfire” with a man who was carrying a shotgun.
Both the suspect, identified by police as 29-year-old Quinte West resident Sean Ward, and the officer sustained gunshot wounds and were taken to hospital, the SIU said. The officer is in critical, but stable condition. The suspect is in life-threatening condition.
Weddum said he and his congregants were on the floor for what felt like “hours” as the gunman was met by the police officer, who was already stationed outside the synagogue.
“He (the suspect) wouldn’t have seen the officer because he was in an unmarked vehicle, and I believe that’s when the officer confronted him, and of course, all hell broke loose,” he said. “At that point, the bullets were coming in through the windows of the sanctuary … one of our stained glass windows has got about 20 bullet holes.”
Weddum said Belleville’s Jewish community is quite small and his synagogue has never received any threats.
Doug Lobel is a member of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue who was at the service Sunday night. He said the “most terrifying part” of the ordeal was hearing the shots, but not knowing what was happening outside the temple’s walls.
“We didn’t know if there was more than one shooter. We didn’t know if the officer was still there, if he was injured. But the biggest concern was, was a gunman going to breach the doors and start targeting us … what do we do in that situation?” he told CP24 on Monday.
Lobel said police attending the scene instructed the congregation to stay inside the synagogue as the situation unfolded.
As they remained inside, Lobel said the rabbi and other members of the synagogue put tables together for prayer.
“We got the tables together. We started doing some prayers, and we just tried our best to maintain some normalcy, as difficult as that was,” he said. “We probably did a few prayers and tried to hold hands and did some songs together until the police came and said the SWAT team had to come inside and take a look around for our safety.”