A 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun opened fire on a police officer stationed outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, during Yom Kippur services on Sunday evening, triggering a shootout of up to 30 rounds that left both men seriously wounded. The suspect, identified as Sean Ward of the nearby city of Quinte West, was hospitalised in life-threatening condition. The officer, Constable Jeff Smith — a 13-year veteran of the Belleville Police Service — was seriously wounded but his condition had stabilised as he recovered in intensive care.

Preliminary evidence from Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the civilian agency that oversees serious incidents involving police, indicated that Ward arrived in a truck around 7 p.m. and immediately opened fire. A second officer arrived and also discharged his weapon. Nearby vehicles and homes were riddled with bullet holes across a scene stretching roughly half a block from the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, a city of around 55,000 people approximately 160 kilometres east of Toronto. About two dozen worshippers were inside the synagogue when the shooting erupted. One of them, Douglas Lobel, described the gunfire as lasting two to three minutes.