The man accused of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting of three Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers during a wellness check at his eastern Ontario home has been found guilty on all counts.
He received two life sentences Saturday to be served concurrently. He will have no chance for parole for 25 years, which is automatic for first-degree murder.
It was an admitted fact in the case that Alain Bellefeuille killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured constables Mark Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin when he opened fire on them in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023.
The officers had been dispatched to his rented rural house in Bourget, Ont., east of Ottawa, after a neighbour called 911 and reported hearing loud noises including shouting and gunfire, followed by silence.
At issue during the trial was whether Bellefeuille knew the people entering his home were police, and what his intentions were when he repeatedly fired his rifle over several minutes.
Crucial evidence in the case — for the Crown and the defence — came from the body-worn cameras of Mueller, Gamache-Asselin and other officers who arrived after the shots were fired, including then Const. Ionut “John” Mihuta, who arrested Bellefeuille. That footage can be seen in the following stories:
Bellefeuille had pleaded not guilty in March when his bilingual trial began in Superior Court in L’Orignal, Ont. — the oldest courthouse in Ontario.
Day after day, Mueller’s family, dressed in black, and a large crowd of supporters and colleagues of the victims filled the wooden benches on the Crown’s side of the courtroom gallery.
Lauzon, who suffered life-altering injuries and has not returned to work, attended most days, and his frequent smiles and laughter during breaks stood out in a sea of sombre faces. Gamache-Asselin, who suffered a minor knee laceration and is back at work, occasionally attended.
The defence side of the room behind the prisoner’s box filled up at key moments, such as on the first day of Bellefeuille’s testimony earlier this month, but on most days the proceedings were attended by his sister, mother and aunt.
Security was tight. Two cruisers brought Bellefeuille to the small courthouse every day, with a team of special constables accompanying him through the same few entrances and hallways used by the public, jury, judge and lawyers. Two officers guarded the door inside the courtroom, and tactical officers were stationed outside the courthouse.
Bellefeuille took the stand in his own defence. He testified he’d been asleep and was woken by his barking dog, flashing lights and banging outside his rented rural home. He said he immediately believed someone was trying to break in, and that he’d been afraid of such an attack ever since friends of his suffered a violent home invasion years earlier.
Bellefeuille’s defence lawyer Leo Russomanno urged the jury to consider the events from Bellefeuille’s perspective, stressing that it all happened over the span of just four minutes — from the time police arrived to the time his client called 911 to report that he’d shot an officer.
In the Crown’s closing submissions, Tansey called Bellefeuille’s actions that night “devastating, calculated and precise.”
Bellefeuille fired four separate volleys from his high-powered SKS rifle, which was equipped with an illegally modified magazine that could hold 22 rounds instead of the five allowed.
He also removed Mueller’s body-worn camera, hid it in his pocket, and later threw it into his neighbour’s yard.
The Crown argued that wasn’t the behaviour of someone acting in self-defence, but rather of someone who had committed a “cold and calculated killing.”
Two of the original 14 jurors were dismissed during the trial: one after the foreperson complained of bullying behaviour by another juror, and the other to preserve public confidence in the justice system after a juror who was running late got a ride to the courthouse with an OPP officer.
