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Belleville: a gunman attacks a synagogue on Yom Kippur; an officer is wounded defending it
An armed man opened fire on a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on Yom Kippur; the officer guarding it was wounded and the assailant killed.
On the evening of 20 September, the day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, an armed man opened fire on the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, in eastern Ontario. A police officer posted outside the building to protect the faithful was struck in the exchange of fire; as of 23 September he remained in intensive care, in critical but stable condition, at Belleville General Hospital.
The suspect, Sean Ward, 29, of Quinte West, is reported to have fired a shotgun. The officer returned fire; gravely wounded, the assailant was taken to hospital, where he died. Several rounds passed through a window of the synagogue, but no worshipper was hit and the man never entered the building. Provincial authorities spoke of as many as thirty shots fired.
The fifth commandment of the Law of God is without qualification: “Thou shalt not kill.” The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that the wilful killing of the innocent cries to Heaven and ranks among the gravest sins, for every man bears within him the image of God who created him. To strike men gathered to pray adds to this crime the contempt of the worship owed to the Creator.
The same Catechism, however, distinguishes from murder the death inflicted by lawful authority or in defence of the innocent: he who protects at the peril of his life those whom others would slaughter does not break the commandment, he honours it. The officer had been posted at the entrance from the beginning of the service, a measure Ontario’s synagogues multiplied under a reinforced police presence during Rosh Hashanah (11-13 September) and Yom Kippur (20-21 September). It was in shielding unarmed men that he fell.
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel of 7 October 2023, Toronto police have made 573 arrests and laid 1,398 charges linked to demonstrations and hate crimes targeting the Jewish community. The morning after the shooting, a few streets from the synagogue, Catholics gathered for morning Mass at St Joseph’s church prayed for the faithful of Sons of Jacob. We join our prayer to theirs: that the wounded be raised up, and that every man may worship without fearing for his life.
Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), from the exposition of the fifth commandment; Exodus, chapter XX, and Genesis, chapter I (Vulgate).