A look at some courthouse shootings in Canada

Shootings at courthouses in Canada are a relatively rare occurrence. Here’s a look at some notable incidents:

January 2018: Steven Bertrand, 18, is seriously injured after being shot in the head following an altercation with a courthouse constable in Maniwaki, Que., about 135 kilometres north of Ottawa.

March 2014: A Peel Regional Police officer, Const. Mike Klarenbeek, was hospitalized after being shot inside a courthouse in Brampton, Ont., with the suspect, Charnjit Singh Bassi, being shot dead.

February 2013: A sheriff was shot and wounded at a courthouse in Whitecourt, Alta. Clayton Ness pleaded guilty to nine charges, including aggravated assault in 2015, and was sentenced to 14 years. Ness used the sheriff’s own handgun — and shot off one of the man’s fingers. A second inmate involved in the escape received the same sentence.

May 2010: Evens Ambroise was shot and injured by a guard outside the Montreal courthouse. Ambroise had been involved in an altercation at the courthouse and was attempting to ram the guard with his car when he was shot. Ambroise was arrested after more than a month on the run in June 2010.

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May 1997: David Francis, a 21-year-old man, was wounded in front of the Scarborough courthouse in Toronto while awaiting his brother’s bail hearing, shot in the head as he stood with relatives. Attempted murder charges were laid against Shawn Currie the same day.

March 1982: Kuldip Singh Samra shot and killed two people and left a third person paralyzed after a rampage inside an Osgoode Hall courtroom in Toronto. Samra fled to his native India and hid there until he was arrested and extradited to Canada in 1992. A jury convicted him in 1993 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Source: The Canadian Press archives

The Canadian Press

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