KINGSTON, Ont. – An Ontario teenager accused of killing the mother and sister of his ex-girlfriend appeared in court via video link Saturday before being officially charged with first-degree murder.
Appearing calm and collected, and wearing a dark blue T-shirt, Dean Brown, 18, told the courtroom he understood why he was in custody and said he had a lawyer.
Brown has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Tracy Hannah, 46, and her daughter, Whitney, 14, who were shot in their Belleville-area home Friday morning.
Brown is also charged with one count of attempted murder.
Another Hannah daughter, 18-year-old Shannon, was injured in the shooting and is in hospital in serious but stable condition.
Friends say the accused and Shannon, a first-year Loyalist College nursing student, had recently ended their relationship.
Brown will remain in custody until his next court appearance in-person on Monday in Belleville.
The crime has stunned friends of the family, as well as the local community, which was rocked just last month when the former wing commander of Canadian Forces Base in Trenton was charged in the murders of two area women.
Friend Ashley Shattraw said Saturday she’s known Shannon Hannah since she was in sixth grade. Shattraw said Shannon and Brown had broken up last month after dating for five years.
“It’s so unreal; it’s so hard to believe that this could happen, let alone to one of my friends,” she said.
“Dean was . . . he was a really nice guy. Just, he had a temper.”
Police have not officially confirmed the identity of the survivor, but said they are waiting until her condition improves before they can speak with her.
“Her health comes first, so that will determine when she can be interviewed,” said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae.
Rae said police were still investigating the crime scene Saturday.
“We have a lot of investigation to do, a lot of things to go over at the scene. We’ll be there for a little while,” she said.
The attack on the Hannah women happened Friday at around 6:30 a.m. local time. Reports suggest that Ted Hannah, Tracy’s husband and the girls’ father, arrived at his home after working his night shift to find his wife and two daughters. Police said they received a 911 call from the home in Mountain View, Ont., south of Belleville.
Belleville is about 185 kilometres northeast of Toronto.
Brown was arrested about three hours after the incident following a massive manhunt that combed through Prince Edward County, Trenton and Brighton. He was apprehended in the parking lot of an automotive shop in Trenton around 9:30 a.m.
Flower bouquets had been placed outside the house Saturday where the shooting took place.
Some friends have been stopping by the home to express their condolences, while other have been putting expressing their sentiments on Facebook.
The social-media website also offers a glimpse of how the accused may have spent the hours before the shootings.
At 6:08 Thursday night, someone using his account wrote: “pay day get tin drunk now mj’s (a local nightclub) soon.”
Friend Adrian Hernandez suggests "come drink with us" then to Shannon an implied invitation, written as just: "mjs."
Shannon responded: “I gotta get off this facebook and to sleep don’t get too drunk and u dummie asking sean to pre drink with u. Not a good scene.”
Adriane replies: "lolol sleep well."
The shooting took place the next morning.
An emotional Shattraw had nothing but good things to say about the victims’ family Saturday.
“You know they are an amazing family. Her mom loved her whole family, just adored them, would do anything for them. And the sisters, they all loved each other. That’s how you have to remember them,” she said, at times tearing up.
“They are an amazing family, its such a tragedy that something like this would happen.”
It’s been a high-profile few months for the region, especially following the charges laid against the former CFB Trenton commander.
Col. Russell Williams, 46, faces first-degree murder charges in the asphyxiation deaths of Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 37, who was found at her Brighton home in November, and Jessica Lloyd, 27, who went missing from Belleville a little more than a week before Williams was arrested on Feb. 7.
Williams will appear in court again on March 25.
Global News, with files from Canwest News Service
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