Courthouse security breaches in Canada and the U.S.

Watch the video above: Security procedures can vary from courthouse to courthouse. Mark Carcasole reports. 

TORONTO – A police officer was shot while providing court security in a Brampton, Ont. courthouse Friday morning, raising concerns about the efficacy of safety measures in locations with such a heavy police presence.

The incident took place inside the courthouse, which is made up of approximately 50 court rooms on four floors.

The suspect entered the A. Grenville and William Davis Courthousejust before 11 a.m. local time and shot Constable Mike Klarenbeek in the general screening area, according to Special Investigations Unit officer Jabsir Brar.

Peel Regional Police Staff Sgt. Dan Richardson told reporters that everyone entering the courthouse must pass through a “stringent” security check similar to an airport.

“There’s officers that are posted there that are assigned specifically for court security,” said Richardson.

“There’s the checkpoints as you walk through with the scanning and the officers are also equipped with the wands for doing the security checks.”

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Nearby officers responded and shot the suspect; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Richardson said he didn’t have information on whether the gunman was firing when he entered the courthouse, or had taken a weapon from one of the officers. He referred all questions to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) as they’ve taken over the investigation due to his death.

Local police services are responsible for providing security at Ontario courthouses though the provincial police will sometimes assume the responsibility when it falls within their jurisdiction, Brendan Crawley, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General wrote in an email statement.

The level of security needed at a courthouse differs based on town, city or region. The Brampton courthouse where Friday’s shooting took place is the only GTA courthouse where security guards are armed.

Though many courthouses in Canada’s larger cities are equipped with similar security measures, there have still been breaches in the past.

February 26, 2013: An Alberta sheriff was shot in the hand at a courthouse about 200 km northwest of Edmonton. The sheriff was one of two guards transporting two prisoners in custody following a drug bust, and a scuffle in a hallway ended in the sheriff’s injury.

READ MORE: How safe are Canada’s smaller courthouses?

March 18, 1982: Kuldip Singh Samra fatally shot two people and paralyzed one man in Toronto’s Osgoode Hall law courts after losing a voter-registration related legal battle. Samra testified that he sensed he was losing his legal case and left court to retrieve a loaded .357 Magnumhandgun from his car. He then shot Amarjit Singh Tatla in the head, before killing Tatla’s friend, Bhupinder Singh Pannu, and his lawyer, Oscar Fonseca, according to the National Post.

And in the United States, a former West Virginia police officer fired 15 to 25 shots from an assault-type rifle at the Wheeling Federal Building in October 2013. One person was injured inside by flying debris, and the gunman was killed by on-duty police officers after he opened fire.

Data from the Center for Judicial and Executive Security (CJES) suggests there have been 199 incidents (including shootings, bombings, and arson attacks) in American state courts from 1970 through 2009.