Welland, Ont., residents have been told to shelter in place after a police officer was shot on Friday morning.Molly Hayes/The Globe and Mail
A tense standoff gripped Welland, Ont., Friday, where police told residents to shelter in place after an officer was shot during a confrontation at a former church occupied by a religious sect that has a history of disputes with the municipality.
The shooting put people on high alert in a neighbourhood that includes the city’s main hospital, several schools, nursing homes and dozens of residences and businesses. The Welland County General Hospital and local schools were temporarily put in lockdown as a precaution, police said.
The man accused of shooting the female officer remained barricaded inside the former church into Friday evening, surrounded by dozens of heavily armed tactical officers from neighbouring police services, including Hamilton and Halton, and multiple armoured vehicles.
It’s the second time in a week that a police officer has been injured in a shooting in the small, southern Ontario city. A fatal shootout on Saturday left a man who was wanted on an arrest warrant dead.
Niagara Regional Police members position themselves along Plymouth Road, close to the location where an officer was shot in Welland, Ont., while police were responding to reports of gunfire, on Friday.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
The standoff with police dragged on for hours, with a wide perimeter around the former church still blocked off Friday evening and cruisers stationed at major intersections. Police negotiators were trying to convince the man to surrender without further violence.
“Lock all doors and windows and remain inside until further notice. Do not leave your residence unless directed by police,” Niagara Regional Police Service advised in a news release. “Negotiators are working toward a peaceful surrender.”
The shooting occurred near St. Mary Catholic School, just before 8 a.m., as children were headed to their final day of classes before the holiday break. Buses were rerouted to another school, St. Andrew, where the kids were kept in the gymnasium until their parents could pick them up. Eight staff were already at the school and were unable to leave until they were eventually evacuated by police.
“It’s a hard start to the holidays for these little ones,” said Jennifer Pellegrini, spokesperson for the Niagara Catholic District School Board. “It’s all happened so fast and we’re just hoping for a peaceful resolution to all this.”
An officer with Niagara Regional Police talks to a passerby on Second Street, close to the location where an officer was shot.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
A second school, Plymouth Public School, was also affected by the lockdown, which caused administrators to cancel classes and tell parents to keep their children at home.
Police told The Globe and Mail that the shooting occurred after municipal bylaw staff went to a former church on Second Street, accompanied by police, to follow-up on complaints about an illegal fence around the property. A man inside the church started shooting at them and officers fired back before he was “contained” within the building, police alleged.
The property is registered to Daniel Tronko, who says he is an elder in a religious sect called the Church of the Higher Consciousness. The sect says it follows Buddhist teachings. Mr. Tronko purchased the dilapidated building in 2012 and converted it into a private, fenced compound.
The building, a former Hungarian Presbyterian Church, has been the subject of a years-long dispute with city officials over bylaw infractions and a proposed rezoning by the municipality. Neighbours have complained about barbed wire around the property, bonfires and guard dogs, according to local news reports. The words “Independent state of Bhudan” and a giant Z are painted on a wooden fence surrounding the building, which was erected earlier this year.
In a 2019 presentation to Welland’s city council, Mr. Tronko proposed building a “meditation garden” on adjacent city-owned lands. He said the city was discriminating against his group because it wanted to rezone the land for commercial purposes instead.
“There have been numerous obstacles to overcome including discrimination from the city itself,” he said in a 2017 letter to council. “We are peaceful people trying to act on our international and national rights to peacefully practice our religion.”
A tactical police vehicle in Welland, Ont. is part of the response to reports of gunfire in the city’s downtown area.
In 2022, Mr. Tronko was fined $18,750 for preventing fire crews from entering the property and for refusing to put out an illegal, open-air bonfire, according to Welland Fire and Emergency Services. He’s publicly stated his land is a “sovereign nation,” and does not recognize the authority of the City of Welland.
A Niagara police spokesperson, Constable Richard Hingley, said the officer injured in Friday’s shooting was shot in the chest but protected by her body armour. Speaking from nearby Buffalo, N.Y., Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters he had heard an officer was shot in Welland and said his “prayers and thoughts” are with her and her family, as well as with police on both sides of the border.
“God bless her and pray everything’s going to work out. I’m very, very confident it will,” he said.
The injured officer was not identified. She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Niagara Regional Police Service, which oversees policing in the city with a population of around 56,000 people. Police said in a Friday evening update that the officer was released with minor injuries.
On Dec. 13, tactical officers became involved in another shooting in Welland when they went to a residence on Steel Street to arrest a man wanted by Peel Regional Police.
In that shooting, five Niagara Regional Police officers exchanged gunfire with a 26-year-old man who died from his injuries. Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the province’s police watchdog, is now investigating. The SIU automatically investigates whenever police discharge their weapons.
That shooting occurred just a few blocks south of the shooting Friday morning. In that earlier incident, an officer was also injured in the shootout, taken to hospital and later released.
The SIU is investigating Friday’s shooting, police said.