Residents in the Innisfil, Ont., neighbourhood where two South Simcoe police officers and a suspect were fatally shot on Tuesday are continuing to try to make sense of the tragedy.
The suspect has not been named by police but Global News sources identified him as 23-year-old Chris Doncaster.
Neighbours and friends say they’re shocked by the tragedy.
“I feel very sad about it, it’s a very sad situation,” said Graham Richfield, who has lived in the area for 25 years. “It is terrible that it happened in our neighbourhood.”
Joshua Souliere, a friend of Doncaster’s, said he was struggling to come to terms with what had happened.
“A lot of people don’t know who he was, and they can say he was a monster and did all these things, but he wasn’t in my eyes,” Souliere said.
“He was always here for me if I needed someone to talk to, if I was going through something, he was always there for his friends.”
On Tuesday, officers responded to a report of a disturbance at a home in Innisfil at around 7:55 p.m. Two attending officers were shot at and later died in hospital.
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The suspect also died.
South Simcoe police released the names of the officers, identifying them as Const. Devon Northrup and Const. Morgan Russell.
Russell was 54 years old, a 33-year member of the service. Northrup was 33 years old and had been with the service for six years.
Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), is investigating the incident and said on Thursday that neither Russel nor Northrup drew their guns during the exchange, which also involved a third officer.
The gun used in the shooting by the suspect was an SKS semi-automatic rifle, the SIU said.
Souliere said Doncaster was a registered gun owner and had trained with the Canadian military. Richfield also said Doncaster had spent time in uniform.
Doncaster’s grandmother posted a photograph of a certificate of enrollment for “Private Christopher Joseph Doncaster” dated May 14, 2020, on her Facebook account.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told Global News someone by the name of Christopher Joseph Doncaster “was a CAF member from May to December 2020.”
“He was a Private with no deployment history and who did not complete basic training,” the spokesperson said.
Court records obtained by Global News also show Doncaster had previous interactions with law enforcement, although he did not have a criminal record.
A charge of mischief was withdrawn in June 2019 along with a charge for failing to attend court. A charge of failure to comply was withdrawn on the same day.
The charge of mischief was laid in October 2018.
Souliere said Doncaster had been struggling with his mental health.
“Obviously the help that he needed, desperately, wasn’t readily available to him,” he said.
“He’s struggled with mental health, he was in the military, it’s not like he was some gangster who has all of these illegal firearms in his house.”
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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