Alain Bellefeuille told arresting officer he thought it was a home invasion when he shot OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller.
OPP Const. Ionut Mihuta was the first back-up officer on the scene after a 2023 wellness check turned deadly in Bourget, a village around 50 km east of Ottawa.
He described the crime scene as a slaughterhouse and bloodbath. It left him in shock.
His two fellow officers — Sgt. Eric Mueller and Const. Marc Lauzon — had just been shot.
Mihuta drove as fast as the police cruiser goes — 200 km/h — and when he arrived at the scene, he parked behind the ambulance, actually blocking it.
He then took cover behind the ambulance and assessed the situation, with his gun drawn and extra body armour on, which covered his bodycam.
Mihuta recalled the doomed events of May 11, 2023 at Alain Bellefeuille’s first-degree murder trial Friday.
Bellefeuille is on trial for the 2023 killing of OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller and shooting of Const. Marc Lauzon, after a wellness check gone deadly wrong.
That Bellefeuille shot the officers is not in question, nor contested. His defence said he thought it was a home invasion, while the police theory, since adopted by prosecutors, is that it was an ambush that had Bellefeuille lying in wait to kill police officers.
But Bellefeuille, the jury has heard, never called the police, nor expected them, let alone at 2:30 in the morning. His next-door neighbour called 911, saying she thought she heard gunfire and Bellefeuille may have shot himself. (He didn’t).
She made the call out of concern for her neighbour.
Mueller and Lauzon arrived at the wellness check for a potential suicide call and first went to the front porch with their flashlights. They didn’t knock or announce their presence as police.
The two officers then go to the back of Bellefeuille’s house and shine their lights in the window and knock on the door closest to bedroom.
Again, the officers did not announce themselves as police.
Then the officers, according to bodycam video shown in court, return to the front porch and don’t announce themselves as police until entering through the unlocked front door.
Seconds later, Bellefeuille, roused from sleep, shoots blindly through his bedroom walls, after seeing shadowy figures with flashlights, and one with a gun, the jury heard.
Lauzon was the officer who went in first, announcing police and calling out Alain by name twice. Lauzon had his pistol drawn as he entered the door for the mental-health call. Mueller’s pistol never left its holster.
Bellefeuille is seen seconds later on the dying Mueller’s bodycam footage. He leans in close, saying he messed around with the wrong motherf—er, should never have broke into my house, sorry about that. Then Bellefeuille says ‘ah f—’ around the moment he would have seen Mueller’s vest, emblazoned with ‘police.’
The arresting officer, Mihuta, told the jury it was a dangerous situation.
He told court when he saw an ambulance in Bellefeuille’s laneway, he was surprised paramedics were at an active shooter call.
He parked behind the ambulance and then took cover behind it.
He saw Bellefeuille pacing the front deck as paramedics tended to Mueller, who was bleeding out on the same deck.
Bellefeuille had already disarmed himself and encouraged the paramedics to come inside and help. They did, even though police weren’t around. They asked Bellefeuille if it was safe and he said yes, and asked them to hurry, saying the officer was still breathing. He also told paramedics he didn’t know they were police and thought someone was breaking in. Bellefeuille told the 911 operator the same when he called for an ambulance.
Mihuta was doing traffic stops and actually started, slowly, making his way to the scene before the chaos, and figured it was another routine gun call in the country, where it’s usually a muffler, a hunter’s shot or fireworks.
But Mihuta hit the gas when he heard a fellow officer screaming over the police radio that they had made contact, shots fired and asked for an ambulance. The two main responding officers, Sgt. Eric Mueller and Const. Marc Lauzon, weren’t responding on the radio and Mihuta took that as a bad sign and feared the worst.
He also testified that a screaming officer seemed extremely scared and was running away, and whispering he thought someone was trying to kill him.
That officer was nicked with a ricochet and his left knee was cut while he was ducking for cover outside. He didn’t require stitches.
Mihuta’s arrest of Bellefeuille was intense. He told him to put up his hands and he did, according to audio from the officer’s bodycam.
Mihuta has his rifle trained at Bellefeuille’s head and says: “Don’t f—ing move. I’ll shoot you, don’t move!”
Bellefeuille said he didn’t know who broke into his house, and certainly didn’t want to kill a cop.
The cop tells him to stop talking, and threatens to shoot the “piece of s—.”
Bellefeuille then tells the officer: “Shoot me brother, shoot me. I don’t want to live anymore.”
The officer replies: “You killed a cop you f—ing animal.”
Bellefeuille then yells twice saying: “I didn’t know it was a cop.”
Bellefeuille obeys with the officer’s commands, gets down on his stomach on the front porch, and he’s cuffed behind his back.
Mihuta told the jury he hit Bellefeuille a few times to get him to comply.
But another officer who testified earlier said Bellefeuille was hit after he was cuffed and lying on his stomach. That officer’s bodycam footage captures one strike.
There was much chaos that night.
Mihuta couldn’t find his “brother”, fellow officer Lauzon. He thought he could be bleeding out inside the house. Then, after other police arrived, they started searching for Lauzon, who had been shot multiple times and managed to get out of the house only to collapse in the yard.
The police, led by Mihuta, searched the woods down to the creek, trying in vain to find Lauzon.
The reason officers couldn’t find Lauzon inside or outside the home is because he had already been rushed to hospital by unarmed paramedics, who risked their lives in an active shooter scene.
In examination-in-chief by Crown Attorney Louise Tansey, Mihuta was, at times, overcome with emotion with his voice cracking and wiping his eyes.
He told another officer to keep an eye on the cuffed Bellefeuille and then decided to go in the ambulance with Mueller to hospital. The paramedics told the officer his cruiser was blocking the ambulance, so Mihuta moves his cruiser out of the way, then gets back in the ambulance and tells paramedics to “hurry up.”
He then he learns Mueller had no vital signs, so he starts performing CPR, but then realized he should leave that to the paramedics.
He told court he had supper with Mueller three hours earlier. Mueller was helping him out with paperwork for a promotion.
After Mueller was dead, Mihuta hugged him, kissed him and said his goodbyes, he told the court.
In the five years André Cousineau lived next door to Alain Bellefeuille, he never once heard his “good neighbour” say or do anything indicating he harboured animosity toward police.
In fact, Bellefeuille never even talked about the police, let alone say he wanted to hurt them.
This detail was revealed in testimony by Cousineau at his neighbour’s trial.
In cross-examination, defence lawyer Leo Russomanno established that his client had no animosity toward police. This evidence came from the neighbour, a Crown witness, and counters the police and prosecutors’ theory that Bellefeuille set out to kill police in the early hours of May 11, 2023.
The shooter’s defence team has told the jury it couldn’t have been an ambush because Bellefeuille never called the police, let alone lured them to his house. He didn’t know they were police and figured it was a home invasion.
It was Cousineau’s wife who set the events in motion when she called 911 for a wellness check. She reported hearing what she thought was a gunshot and feared Bellefeuille had shot himself. She called out of concern.
Cst. Lauzon arrives first for the wellness check, pulls into Bellefeuille’s laneway, then drives next door to meet the neighbours. They give him Alain Bellefeuille’s full name and cell phone. The officer calls the number but it goes straight to voicemail, court heard.
Then Lauzon drives his cruiser back to Bellefeuille’s house. Because Bellefeuille has no criminal record, he was not in the system. The only information Lauzon was going on was what he heard from the neighbours — notably he was sad and may have shot himself, which he didn’t.
Lauzon is first seen on Mueller’s bodycam video, which was played for the jury multiple times this week.
Mueller shows up second, gets out of his cruiser, and together they approach the front porch for the wellness check.
On the front porch, the police don’t knock on the door, call his name or announce a police presence. Then the officers circle around the house and meet up at the back door, which is closest to Bellefeuille’s bedroom. The police shine their flashlights into the back windows of the house and knock on the door. The police did not call out his name and didn’t announce their presence.
The jury has heard a few times through the Crown’s case that police were trying to make as much noise as they could to get Bellefeuille’s attention.
That’s not how the neighbour recalls it.
In cross-examination by Russomanno, Cousineau agreed that — as he watched in shock of the unfolding events from his half-open laundry room window with his family — it was weird the OPP didn’t make that much noise when they were over at Bellefeuille’s place.
The two officers then go back to the front porch entrance and enter the unlocked door. It was only at this time the police announced their presence, with Lauzon saying “Hello Alain. Police” Lauzon has his service pistol drawn and Mueller’s never left its holster.
The officers were shot at within seconds.
Bellefeuille will testify in his own defence after the Crown rests its case. The jury has heard that he’s anxious to tell his side of the story and the events in question haunt him to this day.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/i-didnt- ... e-invasion
OPP officer killed, 2 others injured in 'ambush' east of Ottawa
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'I didn't know it was a cop' — killer thought it was a home invasion
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Graphic bodycam footage of OPP officer's killing crucial for Crown and defence
A crucial video has been shown at the trial of Alain Bellefeuille — who shot and killed an Ontario Provincial Police officer and wounded two others outside Ottawa in 2023 — that takes the jury to the heart of the central question in play.
Did Bellefeuille know he was shooting at police when he repeatedly opened fire?
Footage from the body-worn camera of Sgt. Eric Mueller, who died at the scene, contains moments important to both the Crown and defence. And it provides a rare glimpse at what police sometimes face when responding to calls.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder, and the charges against him have not been proven. But it's not in dispute that he shot and killed Mueller. And there's no question that he shot and critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon — who lived — and fired shots towards Const. François Gamache-Asselin that caused lacerations to his knee.
With the judge's permission, CBC News obtained portions of Mueller's bodycam video. CBC is publishing part of the footage below, with the warning that it depicts graphic violence from the perspective of the mortally wounded officer.
The video includes coarse language, gunshots, disturbing images and sound.
This article also includes graphic descriptions of a violent event as it unfolds.
Noise complaint by neighbours
In the early morning hours on May 11, 2023, Mueller, Lauzon and Gamache-Asselin responded to a noise complaint and performed a wellness check on Bellefeuille at his home on Laval Street in Bourget, Ont., about an hour's drive east of downtown Ottawa.
Mueller's bodycam was activated at 2:28 a.m. The video shows him turning his cruiser up a lane to Bellefeuille's house.
Ahead of him, Lauzon is in his own cruiser with his lights flashing. The first officer on scene, Lauzon has already spoken with the neighbours and tried phoning Bellefeuille without success.
The two officers park. Lauzon turns off his flashing lights, leaving his bright white takedown light illuminating the house and driveway.
The house is dark, but a porch light is on.
Perimeter check
Lauzon's siren is blaring loudly as he and Mueller step out of their vehicles, and the two officers exchange words in French.
Mueller tells Lauzon he didn't want Lauzon going inside, just in case, and asks if Bellefeuille has kids or is alone.
Lauzon tells his sergeant that Bellefeuille is alone, and that the porch light had been off but came on at some point. He says Bellefeuille is reported to drink a lot and is sad about having to move out of his home. And he relays that a neighbour earlier reported hearing yelling and gunfire.
They agree to split up for a perimeter check.
Both officers shine flashlights on the front porch and through the windows, then Lauzon heads right toward the garage and back of the house. Mueller lingers at the porch, telling Gamache-Asselin — who has recently arrived — to "come up" in English over the radio, and then heads around the other side of the house.
"Yeah just cover the front door. Just going to do a perimeter check first," Mueller says in English over the radio.
Mueller and Lauzon meet in the backyard. A dog barks three times. The officers shine their flashlights at the back door and through the windows.
Lauzon knocks repeatedly on the door and the window. The door is locked, he says in French. He relays that he sees a dog and that its barking should wake Bellefeuille.
First verbal declaration they're police
Mueller says in French that they'll check the front door again and enter the house that way. A few seconds later he adds, again in French, "We're f–king smashing it, man."
Neither he nor Mueller have verbally announced themselves as police officers yet. This is a key issue the defence has raised during cross-examination of Crown witnesses.
Gamache-Asselin is waiting out front, taking cover behind a van.
Mueller approaches a window and shines his flashlight inside, while Lauzon opens the front door with his pistol drawn at his side.
Gamache-Asselin has no chance to speak to his colleagues. He testified under cross-examination that he had no idea Mueller and Lauzon were going to enter until they walked up to the front door, and that he followed them but hung back slightly.
"Allo Alain, police!" Lauzon yells calmly.
Shots fired through bedroom wall
At this point, the bodycam footage provided by the court cuts for 46 seconds. The jury, however, sees and hears it all, and later, Lauzon explains it.
Opening the door, Lauzon also says, "Salut le chien [Hello dog]. Allo Alain, police! Alain!"
Mueller yells, in English, "Hello!"
It's 2:33 a.m., and both men are now inside.
Suddenly, right after Mueller says hello, Bellefeuille fires nine shots with his semi-automatic rifle through his bedroom wall in the direction of the officers.
"Gams! Help! Gams!" Mueller screams to Gamache-Asselin, using his nickname.
Eight seconds later, two more shots are heard.
'I'm injured!'
The footage provided by the court resumes just before 2:34 a.m. Mueller is on the floor of the darkened mudroom, bleeding, his camera obscured, then facing toward the ceiling. Gamache-Asselin shouts at Lauzon to come outside, and Lauzon replies in French, "I can't! I'm injured!" between heavy breaths.
As Gamache-Asselin screams on the radio that Lauzon is injured and to send an ambulance immediately, Bellefeuille screams in English, "Break and enter, motherf--ker!"
Lauzon — who has been shot multiple times — steps briefly into the frame from the door as Gamache-Asselin shouts at him to retreat.
Lauzon, breathing hard and moaning, looks down at Mueller. Smoke from the shots that hit Lauzon's protective vest wafts up to his face, meeting with the fog of his breath.
He looks around a corner, trying to see Bellefeuille, then moves back outside and out of view.
'Shoulda never broke into my house'
Meanwhile, Mueller's bodycam footage shows Bellefeuille in his bedroom doorway. He raises his rifle and fires two more shots out a window.
Wearing a black T-shirt, a baseball cap and combat pants, Bellefeuille walks toward Mueller.
He fires another shot out the front door, then bends over to look directly into Mueller's face.
"You f–ked with the wrong motherf–ker, man, but c'est ainque ça que j'ai à dire [That's all I've got to say]," he says, his voice sometimes dropping to a whisper. "You f–ked with the wrong motherf–ker. Shoulda never broke into my house. Sorry about that."
About 12 seconds later, Bellefeuille says, "Uh, f–k."
Bellefeuille calls 911
He stands up, flips on the light, then grabs the bodycam. The view is obscured for a few seconds by Bellefeuille's hand, and then the lens is covered with something. Nothing can be seen for the remaining two minutes and 40 seconds of video.
A dragging sound is heard, then four more shots ring out at 2:35 a.m. Bellefeuille was firing at the police cruisers outside, Gamache-Asselin testified.
About 45 seconds later, Bellefeuille says in French, "Sorry bud, but you f–ked with the wrong guy. F–ked with the wrong guy."
At 2:37 a.m., Bellefeuille calls police. He tells the dispatcher in English, "Hi, I shot, I had a break and enter but unfortunately I shot a police." Then he gives her his address.
He's transferred to another dispatcher, and Bellefeuille tells him the same thing before the video ends.
Mueller's body-worn camera video is one of several shown to the jury so far in the Crown's case. Three segments of video from Gamache-Asselin's bodycam have been played, as well as audio from the bod-cam of Const. Ionut Mihuta, who arrested Bellefeuille. There are no visuals from Mihuta's bodycam as it was obscured by his armoured vest.
These other exhibits have not yet been filed with the court and are therefore not available.
The trial resumes Monday with the cross-examination of Mihuta.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/g ... -1.7505817
Did Bellefeuille know he was shooting at police when he repeatedly opened fire?
Footage from the body-worn camera of Sgt. Eric Mueller, who died at the scene, contains moments important to both the Crown and defence. And it provides a rare glimpse at what police sometimes face when responding to calls.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder, and the charges against him have not been proven. But it's not in dispute that he shot and killed Mueller. And there's no question that he shot and critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon — who lived — and fired shots towards Const. François Gamache-Asselin that caused lacerations to his knee.
With the judge's permission, CBC News obtained portions of Mueller's bodycam video. CBC is publishing part of the footage below, with the warning that it depicts graphic violence from the perspective of the mortally wounded officer.
The video includes coarse language, gunshots, disturbing images and sound.
This article also includes graphic descriptions of a violent event as it unfolds.
Noise complaint by neighbours
In the early morning hours on May 11, 2023, Mueller, Lauzon and Gamache-Asselin responded to a noise complaint and performed a wellness check on Bellefeuille at his home on Laval Street in Bourget, Ont., about an hour's drive east of downtown Ottawa.
Mueller's bodycam was activated at 2:28 a.m. The video shows him turning his cruiser up a lane to Bellefeuille's house.
Ahead of him, Lauzon is in his own cruiser with his lights flashing. The first officer on scene, Lauzon has already spoken with the neighbours and tried phoning Bellefeuille without success.
The two officers park. Lauzon turns off his flashing lights, leaving his bright white takedown light illuminating the house and driveway.
The house is dark, but a porch light is on.
Perimeter check
Lauzon's siren is blaring loudly as he and Mueller step out of their vehicles, and the two officers exchange words in French.
Mueller tells Lauzon he didn't want Lauzon going inside, just in case, and asks if Bellefeuille has kids or is alone.
Lauzon tells his sergeant that Bellefeuille is alone, and that the porch light had been off but came on at some point. He says Bellefeuille is reported to drink a lot and is sad about having to move out of his home. And he relays that a neighbour earlier reported hearing yelling and gunfire.
They agree to split up for a perimeter check.
Both officers shine flashlights on the front porch and through the windows, then Lauzon heads right toward the garage and back of the house. Mueller lingers at the porch, telling Gamache-Asselin — who has recently arrived — to "come up" in English over the radio, and then heads around the other side of the house.
"Yeah just cover the front door. Just going to do a perimeter check first," Mueller says in English over the radio.
Mueller and Lauzon meet in the backyard. A dog barks three times. The officers shine their flashlights at the back door and through the windows.
Lauzon knocks repeatedly on the door and the window. The door is locked, he says in French. He relays that he sees a dog and that its barking should wake Bellefeuille.
First verbal declaration they're police
Mueller says in French that they'll check the front door again and enter the house that way. A few seconds later he adds, again in French, "We're f–king smashing it, man."
Neither he nor Mueller have verbally announced themselves as police officers yet. This is a key issue the defence has raised during cross-examination of Crown witnesses.
Gamache-Asselin is waiting out front, taking cover behind a van.
Mueller approaches a window and shines his flashlight inside, while Lauzon opens the front door with his pistol drawn at his side.
Gamache-Asselin has no chance to speak to his colleagues. He testified under cross-examination that he had no idea Mueller and Lauzon were going to enter until they walked up to the front door, and that he followed them but hung back slightly.
"Allo Alain, police!" Lauzon yells calmly.
Shots fired through bedroom wall
At this point, the bodycam footage provided by the court cuts for 46 seconds. The jury, however, sees and hears it all, and later, Lauzon explains it.
Opening the door, Lauzon also says, "Salut le chien [Hello dog]. Allo Alain, police! Alain!"
Mueller yells, in English, "Hello!"
It's 2:33 a.m., and both men are now inside.
Suddenly, right after Mueller says hello, Bellefeuille fires nine shots with his semi-automatic rifle through his bedroom wall in the direction of the officers.
"Gams! Help! Gams!" Mueller screams to Gamache-Asselin, using his nickname.
Eight seconds later, two more shots are heard.
'I'm injured!'
The footage provided by the court resumes just before 2:34 a.m. Mueller is on the floor of the darkened mudroom, bleeding, his camera obscured, then facing toward the ceiling. Gamache-Asselin shouts at Lauzon to come outside, and Lauzon replies in French, "I can't! I'm injured!" between heavy breaths.
As Gamache-Asselin screams on the radio that Lauzon is injured and to send an ambulance immediately, Bellefeuille screams in English, "Break and enter, motherf--ker!"
Lauzon — who has been shot multiple times — steps briefly into the frame from the door as Gamache-Asselin shouts at him to retreat.
Lauzon, breathing hard and moaning, looks down at Mueller. Smoke from the shots that hit Lauzon's protective vest wafts up to his face, meeting with the fog of his breath.
He looks around a corner, trying to see Bellefeuille, then moves back outside and out of view.
'Shoulda never broke into my house'
Meanwhile, Mueller's bodycam footage shows Bellefeuille in his bedroom doorway. He raises his rifle and fires two more shots out a window.
Wearing a black T-shirt, a baseball cap and combat pants, Bellefeuille walks toward Mueller.
He fires another shot out the front door, then bends over to look directly into Mueller's face.
"You f–ked with the wrong motherf–ker, man, but c'est ainque ça que j'ai à dire [That's all I've got to say]," he says, his voice sometimes dropping to a whisper. "You f–ked with the wrong motherf–ker. Shoulda never broke into my house. Sorry about that."
About 12 seconds later, Bellefeuille says, "Uh, f–k."
Bellefeuille calls 911
He stands up, flips on the light, then grabs the bodycam. The view is obscured for a few seconds by Bellefeuille's hand, and then the lens is covered with something. Nothing can be seen for the remaining two minutes and 40 seconds of video.
A dragging sound is heard, then four more shots ring out at 2:35 a.m. Bellefeuille was firing at the police cruisers outside, Gamache-Asselin testified.
About 45 seconds later, Bellefeuille says in French, "Sorry bud, but you f–ked with the wrong guy. F–ked with the wrong guy."
At 2:37 a.m., Bellefeuille calls police. He tells the dispatcher in English, "Hi, I shot, I had a break and enter but unfortunately I shot a police." Then he gives her his address.
He's transferred to another dispatcher, and Bellefeuille tells him the same thing before the video ends.
Mueller's body-worn camera video is one of several shown to the jury so far in the Crown's case. Three segments of video from Gamache-Asselin's bodycam have been played, as well as audio from the bod-cam of Const. Ionut Mihuta, who arrested Bellefeuille. There are no visuals from Mihuta's bodycam as it was obscured by his armoured vest.
These other exhibits have not yet been filed with the court and are therefore not available.
The trial resumes Monday with the cross-examination of Mihuta.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/g ... -1.7505817
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Courtroom hears dramatic audio from officer on scene of Bourget OPP killing
Courtroom hears dramatic audio from officer on scene of Bourget OPP killing
In May 2023, after hearing over his police radio that shots had been fired at a home in Bourget, Ont., now-Sgt. Ionut Mihuta said he drove to the scene as fast as his police cruiser would go.
Mihuta said he “had a feeling something was off” even before he said he had his right foot on the gas, going at the maximum speed.
“I was going fast,” he testified in court Monday.
OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller was shot and killed after arriving at the home in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023. Const. François Gamache-Asselin, and another officer, Const. Marc Lauzon, were injured.
The officers were doing a “wellness check” on the man accused of killing Mueller, Alain Bellefeuille, after a neighbour called 911, saying she heard what she thought was a gunshot.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. His defence team says Bellefeuille believed he was firing at intruders and never intended to kill police.
The Crown argues it was an ambush.
Audio from Mihuta’s body-worn camera was heard in court at Bellefeuille’s trial Monday. The video from it is mostly obstructed due to “hard plates”— additional protection Mihuta put on while responding to the shooting.
It captures the intense moments from Mihuta’s arrival and the eventual arrest of Bellefeuille.
Approaching, Mihuta yells at Bellefeuille to get down.
“You killed a cop you f—ing animal,” he was heard screaming.
“I didn’t t know it was a f—ing cop,” Bellefeuille replied.
Mihuta testified that he saw Bellefeuille pacing back and forth on the porch but couldn’t tell if he was holding a weapon because his hands were behind his back.
Bellefeuille’s lawyer Leo Russomanno asked Mihuta,“He immediately tells you directly, ‘I shot him, it’s me?‘”
“Yes,” Mihuta replied.
By then, Bellefeuille had called police and paramedics had arrived at the scene.
“You don’t see him doing anything to obstruct the paramedics and what they’re doing?” Russomanno put to Mihuta.
“That is correct.”
Mihuta said Bellefeuille initially showed resistance as he was trying to handcuff him.
“I didn’t know if there was someone else behind me. I didn’t know how many shooters were involved,” Mihuta told the court. “I was thinking of all kinds of possibilities of me ending up dead. Shot.”
Audio reveals Mihuta yelled at Bellefeuille to “just f—ing do something so I can shoot you, you f—ing piece of s—t.”
“In the state of shock… my emotions got the best of me,” Mihuta told court.
Bellefeuille can also be heard saying “shoot me brother, shoot me, I don’t want to live anymore.”
Responding to commands from Mihuta, Bellefeuille got down on his knees, then went face down on his stomach with his hands on his head.
Mihuta said Bellefeuille kept talking about his dog that had gotten out and at one point, seemed to move one of his hands away from his head.
Mihuta admitted to striking Bellefeuille more than once. He says it was because Bellefeuille either wasn’t complying with commands or because he was worried about officer safety.
“He just killed one of my friends, another one was missing, he was fumbling… I still perceived him as a threat,” Mihuta said.
The jury was previously shown footage of the shooting from Mueller’s body-worn camera.
It shows that emergency lights on the police cruisers were flashing and sirens were activated. The footage shows the officers going around the property with flashlights. Lauzon is seen knocking at the back door over and over for several seconds and a dog bark can be heard.
The officers didn’t announce they were police until they entered the home with Lauzon saying “Allo Alain, police!” The defence argues police should have done more to identify themselves.
“As far as the wellness check, it’s not simply knocking on the door. It also includes announcing, right, announcing you’re police?” Russomanno put to Mihuta.
“Not if we don’t go in the house.”
Bellefeuille’s trial is set to resume next week.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/c ... p-killing/
In May 2023, after hearing over his police radio that shots had been fired at a home in Bourget, Ont., now-Sgt. Ionut Mihuta said he drove to the scene as fast as his police cruiser would go.
Mihuta said he “had a feeling something was off” even before he said he had his right foot on the gas, going at the maximum speed.
“I was going fast,” he testified in court Monday.
OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller was shot and killed after arriving at the home in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023. Const. François Gamache-Asselin, and another officer, Const. Marc Lauzon, were injured.
The officers were doing a “wellness check” on the man accused of killing Mueller, Alain Bellefeuille, after a neighbour called 911, saying she heard what she thought was a gunshot.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. His defence team says Bellefeuille believed he was firing at intruders and never intended to kill police.
The Crown argues it was an ambush.
Audio from Mihuta’s body-worn camera was heard in court at Bellefeuille’s trial Monday. The video from it is mostly obstructed due to “hard plates”— additional protection Mihuta put on while responding to the shooting.
It captures the intense moments from Mihuta’s arrival and the eventual arrest of Bellefeuille.
Approaching, Mihuta yells at Bellefeuille to get down.
“You killed a cop you f—ing animal,” he was heard screaming.
“I didn’t t know it was a f—ing cop,” Bellefeuille replied.
Mihuta testified that he saw Bellefeuille pacing back and forth on the porch but couldn’t tell if he was holding a weapon because his hands were behind his back.
Bellefeuille’s lawyer Leo Russomanno asked Mihuta,“He immediately tells you directly, ‘I shot him, it’s me?‘”
“Yes,” Mihuta replied.
By then, Bellefeuille had called police and paramedics had arrived at the scene.
“You don’t see him doing anything to obstruct the paramedics and what they’re doing?” Russomanno put to Mihuta.
“That is correct.”
Mihuta said Bellefeuille initially showed resistance as he was trying to handcuff him.
“I didn’t know if there was someone else behind me. I didn’t know how many shooters were involved,” Mihuta told the court. “I was thinking of all kinds of possibilities of me ending up dead. Shot.”
Audio reveals Mihuta yelled at Bellefeuille to “just f—ing do something so I can shoot you, you f—ing piece of s—t.”
“In the state of shock… my emotions got the best of me,” Mihuta told court.
Bellefeuille can also be heard saying “shoot me brother, shoot me, I don’t want to live anymore.”
Responding to commands from Mihuta, Bellefeuille got down on his knees, then went face down on his stomach with his hands on his head.
Mihuta said Bellefeuille kept talking about his dog that had gotten out and at one point, seemed to move one of his hands away from his head.
Mihuta admitted to striking Bellefeuille more than once. He says it was because Bellefeuille either wasn’t complying with commands or because he was worried about officer safety.
“He just killed one of my friends, another one was missing, he was fumbling… I still perceived him as a threat,” Mihuta said.
The jury was previously shown footage of the shooting from Mueller’s body-worn camera.
It shows that emergency lights on the police cruisers were flashing and sirens were activated. The footage shows the officers going around the property with flashlights. Lauzon is seen knocking at the back door over and over for several seconds and a dog bark can be heard.
The officers didn’t announce they were police until they entered the home with Lauzon saying “Allo Alain, police!” The defence argues police should have done more to identify themselves.
“As far as the wellness check, it’s not simply knocking on the door. It also includes announcing, right, announcing you’re police?” Russomanno put to Mihuta.
“Not if we don’t go in the house.”
Bellefeuille’s trial is set to resume next week.
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OPP officer says he punched handcuffed Bellefeuille out of fear
OPP Const. Ionut Mihuta says his emotions got the best of him when he threatened, with rifle drawn, to kill an unarmed suspect only to beat him about the head after he was handcuffed behind his back, and lying on his stomach with his face down.
It was just after 2:30 a.m. on May 11, 2023 when a wellness check turned deadly.
“The emotions got the best of me,” Mihuta testified Monday at the first-degree murder trial of Alain Bellefeuille, charged with killing Sgt. Eric Mueller.
Mihuta’s “brothers” — fellow officers — had just been gunned down and he was speeding to the scene in normally quiet Bourget, around 50-km east of Ottawa.
Once he arrived, he took cover behind an ambulance. The paramedics were treating Sgt. Eric Mueller on the front deck, as the killer, Alain Bellefeuille, paced on the same small front porch deck.
The officer approached the front deck and saw paramedics treating Mueller, and noticed Bellefeuille’s rifle was inside the house in the mud room.
Mihuta’s account was revealed under cross-examination by defence lawyer Leo Russomanno.
His client, Bellefeuille, is on trial for the 2023 killing of OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller and shooting of Const. Marc Lauzon, after a wellness check gone deadly wrong.
That Bellefeuille shot the officers is not in question, nor contested. His defence said he thought it was a home invasion, while the police theory, since adopted by prosecutors, is that it was an ambush that had Bellefeuille lying in wait to kill police officers.
But Bellefeuille, the jury has heard, never called the police, nor expected them, let alone at 2:30 in the morning. His next-door neighbour called 911, saying she thought she heard gunfire and Bellefeuille may have shot himself. (He didn’t).
She made the call out of concern for her neighbour.
Mueller and Lauzon arrived at the wellness check for a potential suicide call and first went to the front porch with their flashlights. They didn’t knock or announce their presence as police.
The two officers then go to the back of Bellefeuille’s house and shine their lights in the window and knock on the door closest to the bedroom.
Again, the officers did not announce themselves as police.
Then the officers, according to bodycam video shown in court, return to the front porch and don’t announce themselves as police until entering through the unlocked front door.
Seconds later, Bellefeuille, roused from sleep, shoots blindly through his bedroom walls, after seeing shadowy figures with flashlights, and one with a gun, the jury heard.
Lauzon was the officer who went in first, announcing police and calling out Alain by name twice. Lauzon had his pistol drawn as he entered the door for the mental-health call. Mueller’s pistol never left its holster.
Mihuta dropped highway traffic duty after hearing a gunshot call related to a wellness check. He started making his way to a bungalow in Bourget. He said he figured it was just another gunshot call in the country, which usually end up being fireworks or a backfire on a muffler. The officer told the jury he had a feeling something was off, so he made his way to the scene and hit the gas when he heard a fellow officer screaming over the radio that they had made contact and shots were fired.
Mihuta testified he was nervous because Bellefeuille had just shot his friends.
His thoughts were wild and racing. Mihuta told the jury he was in fear, saying he thought he would end up dead if there was a second shooter. (There wasn’t and police knew he lived alone.)
Mihuta had his rifle trained at Bellefeuille’s head. Bellefeuille was handcuffed behind his back, lying down on the deck, but the officer said he was in fear and didn’t have the courage to lift up his shirt. He feared a second shooter and explosives to “blow us all up.”
“I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment, “ Mihuta told the jury.
The fear recounted by the officer is when Bellefeuille is handcuffed behind his back, on his stomach, lying face down with a gun trained at his head.
Right before, Mihuta points his rifle at Bellefeuille and tells him to drop the gun. He didn’t have one, but it was precautionary.
Bellefeuille tells the cop he didn’t know who broke into his house.
Then Mihuta threatens:
“I got the shotgun at your f***ing head. F***ing do something so I can f***ing shoot you, you piece of s***!”
Bellefeuille replies: “Shoot me brother, shoot me. I don’t want to live anymore.”
“You killed a cop, you f***ing animal!”
“I didn’t know he was a cop!” Bellefeuille told the cop.
Mihuta testified that he hit the downed and handcuffed suspect because he wouldn’t shut up and kept talking about his dog, a young chocolate Lab named Phoenix. That and Mihuta was freaked out that Bellefeuille kept looking behind. The constable figured the dog talk was a distraction to stall and testify that Bellefeuille kept looking behind and the officer feared it was to get an eye on him for strategic reasons. All of this is happening while Bellefeuille is face down on the deck and handcuffed behind his back with Mihuta’s C-8 rifle trained at his head.
It was a wellness check, but the OPP’s mobile crisis unit didn’t work the night shift, so it was just police who responded to the report of a potential suicide.
The arresting officer, and fellow officer Lauzon, noted the porch light came on and figured this was key because it suggested Bellefeuille was up and had turned the light on.
But the police dispatcher had earlier relayed information that it was a motion-detection light. Mihuta told the court he couldn’t recall that dispatch.
In a cross-examination, Mihuta said he had never heard of “knock and announce” before Russomanno asked him about it on Monday. The officer, who has since been promoted, also testified that police don’t have to announce their presence until they enter a home. He also testified that he had no specific training for wellness checks and said every case is different.
The trial continued on Tuesday.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/opp-offi ... cop-killer
It was just after 2:30 a.m. on May 11, 2023 when a wellness check turned deadly.
“The emotions got the best of me,” Mihuta testified Monday at the first-degree murder trial of Alain Bellefeuille, charged with killing Sgt. Eric Mueller.
Mihuta’s “brothers” — fellow officers — had just been gunned down and he was speeding to the scene in normally quiet Bourget, around 50-km east of Ottawa.
Once he arrived, he took cover behind an ambulance. The paramedics were treating Sgt. Eric Mueller on the front deck, as the killer, Alain Bellefeuille, paced on the same small front porch deck.
The officer approached the front deck and saw paramedics treating Mueller, and noticed Bellefeuille’s rifle was inside the house in the mud room.
Mihuta’s account was revealed under cross-examination by defence lawyer Leo Russomanno.
His client, Bellefeuille, is on trial for the 2023 killing of OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller and shooting of Const. Marc Lauzon, after a wellness check gone deadly wrong.
That Bellefeuille shot the officers is not in question, nor contested. His defence said he thought it was a home invasion, while the police theory, since adopted by prosecutors, is that it was an ambush that had Bellefeuille lying in wait to kill police officers.
But Bellefeuille, the jury has heard, never called the police, nor expected them, let alone at 2:30 in the morning. His next-door neighbour called 911, saying she thought she heard gunfire and Bellefeuille may have shot himself. (He didn’t).
She made the call out of concern for her neighbour.
Mueller and Lauzon arrived at the wellness check for a potential suicide call and first went to the front porch with their flashlights. They didn’t knock or announce their presence as police.
The two officers then go to the back of Bellefeuille’s house and shine their lights in the window and knock on the door closest to the bedroom.
Again, the officers did not announce themselves as police.
Then the officers, according to bodycam video shown in court, return to the front porch and don’t announce themselves as police until entering through the unlocked front door.
Seconds later, Bellefeuille, roused from sleep, shoots blindly through his bedroom walls, after seeing shadowy figures with flashlights, and one with a gun, the jury heard.
Lauzon was the officer who went in first, announcing police and calling out Alain by name twice. Lauzon had his pistol drawn as he entered the door for the mental-health call. Mueller’s pistol never left its holster.
Mihuta dropped highway traffic duty after hearing a gunshot call related to a wellness check. He started making his way to a bungalow in Bourget. He said he figured it was just another gunshot call in the country, which usually end up being fireworks or a backfire on a muffler. The officer told the jury he had a feeling something was off, so he made his way to the scene and hit the gas when he heard a fellow officer screaming over the radio that they had made contact and shots were fired.
Mihuta testified he was nervous because Bellefeuille had just shot his friends.
His thoughts were wild and racing. Mihuta told the jury he was in fear, saying he thought he would end up dead if there was a second shooter. (There wasn’t and police knew he lived alone.)
Mihuta had his rifle trained at Bellefeuille’s head. Bellefeuille was handcuffed behind his back, lying down on the deck, but the officer said he was in fear and didn’t have the courage to lift up his shirt. He feared a second shooter and explosives to “blow us all up.”
“I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment, “ Mihuta told the jury.
The fear recounted by the officer is when Bellefeuille is handcuffed behind his back, on his stomach, lying face down with a gun trained at his head.
Right before, Mihuta points his rifle at Bellefeuille and tells him to drop the gun. He didn’t have one, but it was precautionary.
Bellefeuille tells the cop he didn’t know who broke into his house.
Then Mihuta threatens:
“I got the shotgun at your f***ing head. F***ing do something so I can f***ing shoot you, you piece of s***!”
Bellefeuille replies: “Shoot me brother, shoot me. I don’t want to live anymore.”
“You killed a cop, you f***ing animal!”
“I didn’t know he was a cop!” Bellefeuille told the cop.
Mihuta testified that he hit the downed and handcuffed suspect because he wouldn’t shut up and kept talking about his dog, a young chocolate Lab named Phoenix. That and Mihuta was freaked out that Bellefeuille kept looking behind. The constable figured the dog talk was a distraction to stall and testify that Bellefeuille kept looking behind and the officer feared it was to get an eye on him for strategic reasons. All of this is happening while Bellefeuille is face down on the deck and handcuffed behind his back with Mihuta’s C-8 rifle trained at his head.
It was a wellness check, but the OPP’s mobile crisis unit didn’t work the night shift, so it was just police who responded to the report of a potential suicide.
The arresting officer, and fellow officer Lauzon, noted the porch light came on and figured this was key because it suggested Bellefeuille was up and had turned the light on.
But the police dispatcher had earlier relayed information that it was a motion-detection light. Mihuta told the court he couldn’t recall that dispatch.
In a cross-examination, Mihuta said he had never heard of “knock and announce” before Russomanno asked him about it on Monday. The officer, who has since been promoted, also testified that police don’t have to announce their presence until they enter a home. He also testified that he had no specific training for wellness checks and said every case is different.
The trial continued on Tuesday.
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Graphic footage from OPP officer’s bodycam plays central role at trial
Footage from Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Eric Mueller’s body-worn camera is a crucial piece of evidence at the trial of the man charged with his murder and the attempted murder of two other officers who were responding to a call for a disturbance and a possible gunshot in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023, in Bourget, Ont.
While the jury saw and heard the whole video, which includes the moment the officers are shot and the agonizing aftermath, that specific part is edited out of the footage provided by the court to media.
With a judge’s permission, media outlets routinely obtain copies of exhibits from the court that have been entered into evidence during a trial.
Just over eight minutes of footage was provided. CTV News Ottawa is publishing only certain portions of video and has removed some audio due to its distressing nature.
Alain Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. While Bellefeuille admits to killing Mueller and injuring Const. Marc Lauzon and Const. François Gamache-Asselin, his lawyers say Bellefeuille never called, nor expected police to show up at his home in the middle of the night and he thought he was shooting at intruders. Bellefeuille, who lawyers say had been sleeping when officers arrived, is expected to testify in his own defence.
The Crown argues it was an ambush—the officers were shot within seconds of entering Bellefeuille’s home during a wellness check and Bellefeuille had been lying in wait. In his opening statement, assistant Crown attorney François Dulude told the jury it would hear from a firearms expert about Bellefeuille’s semi-automatic rifle and a night vision scope and muzzle attachment.
In addition to providing a look at what happened that tragic night, the video also shows what most never get to see—what police can sometimes face when responding to calls.
What prompted the police response
Court heard Bellefeuille’s neighbour called 911 in the middle of the night on May 11, 2023, to report hearing what she thought was a gunshot.
The woman’s husband testified that she thought Bellefeuille had shot himself and police were sent to do a wellness check on him.
Lauzon was the first officer on scene and also went to the neighbour’s house to speak with them. They provided Lauzon with Bellefeuille’s name and number but he didn’t answer when Lauzon called him.
Mueller arrives
Mueller’s body camera was activated at 2:28 a.m.
It captures his cruiser pulling into the driveway of Bellefeuille’s home on Laval Street.
Lauzon is in his cruiser with its emergency lights flashing in the driveway. He’d already been to the neighbour’s house.
You hear sirens as the officers get out of their cruisers. Lauzon turns off his flashing emergency lights but the bright white “takedown light” that’s part of the light bar on top of Lauzon’s cruiser along with the spotlight is turned on, illuminating the house.
Speaking in French, Lauzon tells Mueller that Bellefeuille lives alone and at some point the porch light that had been off came on.
He also told him about why the neighbour called 911 and that Bellefeuille was going to have to move out of his home.
Perimeter check
Lauzon and Mueller walk towards the house before walking around the perimeter, shining their flashlights into the windows and on the front porch right in front of them.
Speaking into his police radio, Mueller can be heard telling Gamache-Asselin to “come up.” He was the third officer on scene but would never make it into the house.
Checking the exterior of the property, Lauzon walks around the right side of the house by the garage and Mueller goes to the left.
You can see Mueller’s shadow on the house as he shines his flashlight on it.
“Cover the front door, just going to do a perimeter check first,” Mueller says in English over his radio. It’s 2:30 a.m.
As Mueller gets to the back of the house, a dog barks about three times and he shines his flashlight at the back door and windows.
Lauzon meets Mueller in the backyard and approaches the back door. He says it’s locked and that if Bellefeuille was sleeping, the dog’s barking would wake him up.
At 2:31 a.m. Lauzon is seen knocking loudly at the back door over and over again for about 30 seconds.
He says he sees a dog and then continues knocking on a window.
Mueller and Lauzon then walk back to the front of the house, Mueller shining his flashlight into a basement window.
“Allo Alain, police!”
It’s 2:33 a.m.
Lauzon is the first officer to enter the home through the unlocked front door, saying loudly “Allo Alain, police!” A dog barks again. This is the first time the officers verbally announced themselves as police.
In the full video shown in court, Lauzon continues to announce himself saying: “Salut le chien. Allo Alain, police! Alain!”
Mueller also yells “Hello!”
Shots fired
Right after Mueller said “Hello!” and mere seconds after the officers walked into the home, Bellefeuille fired several shots from his bedroom, which struck the officers.
About 46 seconds of the video, a section that includes the shooting, was removed from the exhibit.
The video provided by the court picks up again just before 2:34 a.m. Mueller is on the ground in the mudroom, bleeding—his body-worn camera is pointed up toward the ceiling and the door to the right.
Lauzon, who was shot several times, is seen coming back into frame in the doorway near Mueller. He bends over, breathing heavily and moaning with smoke from where bullets hit his protective vest visible.
“Retreat! Where is he?” Gamache-Asselin, who had taken cover behind vehicles in the driveway, can be heard yelling from outside at Lauzon, followed by “Marc, retreat!”
Gamache-Asselin screams on his radio for an ambulance.
At 2:34:18 Bellefeuille becomes visible on the camera coming out of his bedroom at the back of the house and he fires two more shots out the window. After that moment, the scene is very briefly quiet; the only sound is that of shell casings bouncing off the floor.
The defence has suggested Bellefeuille had been sleeping when the officers arrived.
Bellefeuille is wearing a baseball hat, black t-shirt and pants.
Bellefeuille fires once more before walking up to Mueller and leaning over him.
“Shoulda never broke into my house”
Bellefeuille looks directly at Mueller’s face and speaks to him.
“You f—ed with the wrong mother f-er man…should have never broke into my house. Sorry about that.”
You can hear Lauzon moaning outside. He’d collapsed on the lawn.
At 2:35 a.m. Bellefeuille turns on the light and grabs Mueller’s body-worn camera from his vest, covering it up.
After that the screen is dark but it’s still recording audio—there’s a lot of rustling and then four more gunshots in quick succession—believed to be when Bellefeuille fires at the OPP cruisers in the driveway.
Bellefeuille’s defence team says he thought he was firing on intruders and never set out to kill police.
Bellefeuille calls 911
At 2:37 a.m., nearly four minutes after shots were first fired, Bellefeuille called 911.
“I thought it was a break and enter and I, unfortunately, I shot a police,” he told the dispatcher. “I shot a police; unfortunately, he broke into my house.”
Other body camera footage
Court was also shown body camera footage from Gamache-Asselin and heard audio from the camera of now-Sgt. Ionut Mihuta who arrested Bellefeuille. Mihuta’s camera was mostly blocked due to additional body armour he put on while responding to the shooting.
The trial resumes next week.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/g ... -at-trial/
While the jury saw and heard the whole video, which includes the moment the officers are shot and the agonizing aftermath, that specific part is edited out of the footage provided by the court to media.
With a judge’s permission, media outlets routinely obtain copies of exhibits from the court that have been entered into evidence during a trial.
Just over eight minutes of footage was provided. CTV News Ottawa is publishing only certain portions of video and has removed some audio due to its distressing nature.
Alain Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. While Bellefeuille admits to killing Mueller and injuring Const. Marc Lauzon and Const. François Gamache-Asselin, his lawyers say Bellefeuille never called, nor expected police to show up at his home in the middle of the night and he thought he was shooting at intruders. Bellefeuille, who lawyers say had been sleeping when officers arrived, is expected to testify in his own defence.
The Crown argues it was an ambush—the officers were shot within seconds of entering Bellefeuille’s home during a wellness check and Bellefeuille had been lying in wait. In his opening statement, assistant Crown attorney François Dulude told the jury it would hear from a firearms expert about Bellefeuille’s semi-automatic rifle and a night vision scope and muzzle attachment.
In addition to providing a look at what happened that tragic night, the video also shows what most never get to see—what police can sometimes face when responding to calls.
What prompted the police response
Court heard Bellefeuille’s neighbour called 911 in the middle of the night on May 11, 2023, to report hearing what she thought was a gunshot.
The woman’s husband testified that she thought Bellefeuille had shot himself and police were sent to do a wellness check on him.
Lauzon was the first officer on scene and also went to the neighbour’s house to speak with them. They provided Lauzon with Bellefeuille’s name and number but he didn’t answer when Lauzon called him.
Mueller arrives
Mueller’s body camera was activated at 2:28 a.m.
It captures his cruiser pulling into the driveway of Bellefeuille’s home on Laval Street.
Lauzon is in his cruiser with its emergency lights flashing in the driveway. He’d already been to the neighbour’s house.
You hear sirens as the officers get out of their cruisers. Lauzon turns off his flashing emergency lights but the bright white “takedown light” that’s part of the light bar on top of Lauzon’s cruiser along with the spotlight is turned on, illuminating the house.
Speaking in French, Lauzon tells Mueller that Bellefeuille lives alone and at some point the porch light that had been off came on.
He also told him about why the neighbour called 911 and that Bellefeuille was going to have to move out of his home.
Perimeter check
Lauzon and Mueller walk towards the house before walking around the perimeter, shining their flashlights into the windows and on the front porch right in front of them.
Speaking into his police radio, Mueller can be heard telling Gamache-Asselin to “come up.” He was the third officer on scene but would never make it into the house.
Checking the exterior of the property, Lauzon walks around the right side of the house by the garage and Mueller goes to the left.
You can see Mueller’s shadow on the house as he shines his flashlight on it.
“Cover the front door, just going to do a perimeter check first,” Mueller says in English over his radio. It’s 2:30 a.m.
As Mueller gets to the back of the house, a dog barks about three times and he shines his flashlight at the back door and windows.
Lauzon meets Mueller in the backyard and approaches the back door. He says it’s locked and that if Bellefeuille was sleeping, the dog’s barking would wake him up.
At 2:31 a.m. Lauzon is seen knocking loudly at the back door over and over again for about 30 seconds.
He says he sees a dog and then continues knocking on a window.
Mueller and Lauzon then walk back to the front of the house, Mueller shining his flashlight into a basement window.
“Allo Alain, police!”
It’s 2:33 a.m.
Lauzon is the first officer to enter the home through the unlocked front door, saying loudly “Allo Alain, police!” A dog barks again. This is the first time the officers verbally announced themselves as police.
In the full video shown in court, Lauzon continues to announce himself saying: “Salut le chien. Allo Alain, police! Alain!”
Mueller also yells “Hello!”
Shots fired
Right after Mueller said “Hello!” and mere seconds after the officers walked into the home, Bellefeuille fired several shots from his bedroom, which struck the officers.
About 46 seconds of the video, a section that includes the shooting, was removed from the exhibit.
The video provided by the court picks up again just before 2:34 a.m. Mueller is on the ground in the mudroom, bleeding—his body-worn camera is pointed up toward the ceiling and the door to the right.
Lauzon, who was shot several times, is seen coming back into frame in the doorway near Mueller. He bends over, breathing heavily and moaning with smoke from where bullets hit his protective vest visible.
“Retreat! Where is he?” Gamache-Asselin, who had taken cover behind vehicles in the driveway, can be heard yelling from outside at Lauzon, followed by “Marc, retreat!”
Gamache-Asselin screams on his radio for an ambulance.
At 2:34:18 Bellefeuille becomes visible on the camera coming out of his bedroom at the back of the house and he fires two more shots out the window. After that moment, the scene is very briefly quiet; the only sound is that of shell casings bouncing off the floor.
The defence has suggested Bellefeuille had been sleeping when the officers arrived.
Bellefeuille is wearing a baseball hat, black t-shirt and pants.
Bellefeuille fires once more before walking up to Mueller and leaning over him.
“Shoulda never broke into my house”
Bellefeuille looks directly at Mueller’s face and speaks to him.
“You f—ed with the wrong mother f-er man…should have never broke into my house. Sorry about that.”
You can hear Lauzon moaning outside. He’d collapsed on the lawn.
At 2:35 a.m. Bellefeuille turns on the light and grabs Mueller’s body-worn camera from his vest, covering it up.
After that the screen is dark but it’s still recording audio—there’s a lot of rustling and then four more gunshots in quick succession—believed to be when Bellefeuille fires at the OPP cruisers in the driveway.
Bellefeuille’s defence team says he thought he was firing on intruders and never set out to kill police.
Bellefeuille calls 911
At 2:37 a.m., nearly four minutes after shots were first fired, Bellefeuille called 911.
“I thought it was a break and enter and I, unfortunately, I shot a police,” he told the dispatcher. “I shot a police; unfortunately, he broke into my house.”
Other body camera footage
Court was also shown body camera footage from Gamache-Asselin and heard audio from the camera of now-Sgt. Ionut Mihuta who arrested Bellefeuille. Mihuta’s camera was mostly blocked due to additional body armour he put on while responding to the shooting.
The trial resumes next week.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/g ... -at-trial/
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Trial of man accused of killing OPP officer hears testimony of frantic search for injured colleagues
An Ontario Provincial Police officer took the stand at Alain Bellefeuille’s murder trial Tuesday, describing the “frantic search” for fellow officers, what Bellefeuille had in his pockets, and the moment they found a body-worn camera belonging to Sgt. Eric Mueller following a fatal shooting in Bourget, Ont. in May 2023.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Mueller was killed and constables Marc Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin were injured on May 11, 2023. They’d been doing a wellness check on Bellefeuille after a neighbour called 911 reporting she’d heard a gunshot.
Const. Justin Boyd with Hawkesbury OPP had been listening to radio transmissions relating to calls in his jurisdiction and neighbouring ones while doing paperwork in his cruiser when he heard “shots fired” come over the air. He saw another nearby officer take off in the direction of the call, about 20-25 minutes away.
“I heard his car roar, and I knew he was going as fast as he could,” Boyd said. “I turn out and do the same.”
When he got to Bellefeuille’s house, he knew how grave the situation was when he saw the expression on a firefighter’s face.
“We do a tough job but when you see their faces white, it paints the picture for what you’re about to go into,” Boyd testified.
“We need to find them”
At this point, Boyd didn’t know Bellefeuille was in custody or that the officers involved in the call had already been rushed to the hospital.
“At this time, I believe officers are dying in the forest,” he told the court.
He walked the jury through what he did next—clearing the backyard, walking shoulder to shoulder with other officers about 10 metres into the forested area behind Bellefeuille’s house screaming, shining flashlights, and seeing if they could see their fellow officers.
“Then it becomes…roots are so entangled it’s almost impossible to keep walking in,” he said, adding they came to the conclusion that someone with severe injuries wouldn’t be able to make it that far in.
They then made their way around the fence line and found a body-worn camera on the ground in the neighbour’s backyard. The body-worn cameras are fastened to a metal plate on an officer’s protective vest so that “it’d be difficult to get it off in a struggle,” Boyd said.
The body-worn camera footage played in court starts around 3:12 a.m. and an officer yells, “Here’s his camera! There’s no name, there’s no name.”
Audio from the footage also reveals the sound of a gunshot—an officer holding a carbine pointed down toward the ground “hit the trigger by accident.”
“Misfire, misfire” was yelled to let those on scene know it had been a mistake.
Another officer can be heard saying “watch your shooting, watch your finger.”
Eventually, Boyd was informed that the officers had been taken to the hospital and they “take a bit of a breath.” Bellefeuille was in custody, and they went through his house a second time, along with the garage, to make sure no one else was inside.
He said the entire Hawkesbury detachment ended up at the scene, along with some officers from the Ottawa Police Service.
What Bellefeuille was wearing
The jury was shown photos of what Bellefeuille was wearing the night he was arrested. He was taken from the scene to the cellblock at the Rockland OPP detachment.
Paramedics cut off Bellefeuille’s clothing to “make sure he didn’t have any injuries hidden in plain sight,” Boyd said.
Bellefeuille took his boots off first and Boyd “noticed right away they were steel-toed boots.” Photos shown in court showed the boots had what appeared to be blood on them.
Boyd said Bellefeuille was wearing pants with knee pads in them. They were covered in paint and what appears to be a blood stain on the right knee. A phone, cigarettes, lighter, toonie and some other change were found in the pockets. A shell casing was also seized.
Bellefeuille was taken to the hospital by paramedics, though Boyd testified he “didn’t observe any significant injuries that needed immediate medical attention.”
“That’s a medical decision, I don’t feel I have any authority or reason to deny that.”
Photos taken of Bellefeuille at the hospital include pictures of his hands covered in what Boyd interpreted on the stand as dried blood and a “significant” amount of dried blood in his fingernails.
The Crown argues the officers were ambushed. The defence’s position is that Bellefeuille had been asleep when police arrived for a wellness check and thought he was shooting at intruders, not police.
Boyd is expected to be cross-examined when the trial resumes on Wednesday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/t ... olleagues/
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Mueller was killed and constables Marc Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin were injured on May 11, 2023. They’d been doing a wellness check on Bellefeuille after a neighbour called 911 reporting she’d heard a gunshot.
Const. Justin Boyd with Hawkesbury OPP had been listening to radio transmissions relating to calls in his jurisdiction and neighbouring ones while doing paperwork in his cruiser when he heard “shots fired” come over the air. He saw another nearby officer take off in the direction of the call, about 20-25 minutes away.
“I heard his car roar, and I knew he was going as fast as he could,” Boyd said. “I turn out and do the same.”
When he got to Bellefeuille’s house, he knew how grave the situation was when he saw the expression on a firefighter’s face.
“We do a tough job but when you see their faces white, it paints the picture for what you’re about to go into,” Boyd testified.
“We need to find them”
At this point, Boyd didn’t know Bellefeuille was in custody or that the officers involved in the call had already been rushed to the hospital.
“At this time, I believe officers are dying in the forest,” he told the court.
He walked the jury through what he did next—clearing the backyard, walking shoulder to shoulder with other officers about 10 metres into the forested area behind Bellefeuille’s house screaming, shining flashlights, and seeing if they could see their fellow officers.
“Then it becomes…roots are so entangled it’s almost impossible to keep walking in,” he said, adding they came to the conclusion that someone with severe injuries wouldn’t be able to make it that far in.
They then made their way around the fence line and found a body-worn camera on the ground in the neighbour’s backyard. The body-worn cameras are fastened to a metal plate on an officer’s protective vest so that “it’d be difficult to get it off in a struggle,” Boyd said.
The body-worn camera footage played in court starts around 3:12 a.m. and an officer yells, “Here’s his camera! There’s no name, there’s no name.”
Audio from the footage also reveals the sound of a gunshot—an officer holding a carbine pointed down toward the ground “hit the trigger by accident.”
“Misfire, misfire” was yelled to let those on scene know it had been a mistake.
Another officer can be heard saying “watch your shooting, watch your finger.”
Eventually, Boyd was informed that the officers had been taken to the hospital and they “take a bit of a breath.” Bellefeuille was in custody, and they went through his house a second time, along with the garage, to make sure no one else was inside.
He said the entire Hawkesbury detachment ended up at the scene, along with some officers from the Ottawa Police Service.
What Bellefeuille was wearing
The jury was shown photos of what Bellefeuille was wearing the night he was arrested. He was taken from the scene to the cellblock at the Rockland OPP detachment.
Paramedics cut off Bellefeuille’s clothing to “make sure he didn’t have any injuries hidden in plain sight,” Boyd said.
Bellefeuille took his boots off first and Boyd “noticed right away they were steel-toed boots.” Photos shown in court showed the boots had what appeared to be blood on them.
Boyd said Bellefeuille was wearing pants with knee pads in them. They were covered in paint and what appears to be a blood stain on the right knee. A phone, cigarettes, lighter, toonie and some other change were found in the pockets. A shell casing was also seized.
Bellefeuille was taken to the hospital by paramedics, though Boyd testified he “didn’t observe any significant injuries that needed immediate medical attention.”
“That’s a medical decision, I don’t feel I have any authority or reason to deny that.”
Photos taken of Bellefeuille at the hospital include pictures of his hands covered in what Boyd interpreted on the stand as dried blood and a “significant” amount of dried blood in his fingernails.
The Crown argues the officers were ambushed. The defence’s position is that Bellefeuille had been asleep when police arrived for a wellness check and thought he was shooting at intruders, not police.
Boyd is expected to be cross-examined when the trial resumes on Wednesday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/t ... olleagues/
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Crown ends case against alleged police murderer as accused prepares to testify
Crown prosecutors have closed their case in the murder trial of Alain Bellefeuille, and now the accused is expected to take the stand in his own defence this week to tell his side of the story.
Bellefeuille pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his trial in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March.
It's an admitted fact in this case that Bellefeuille killed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Eric Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin when he shot them before dawn on May 11, 2023.
Part of what the jury will have to decide, based on Bellefeuille's upcoming testimony and all the other evidence heard at trial, is what Bellefeuille was thinking and what his intentions were when he repeatedly opened fire.
CBC has now obtained more video exhibits played in court during the prosecution's case, which closed Tuesday. They show what happened after Mueller and Lauzon were shot, from the perspective of Gamache-Asselin, who was behind them.
They also capture part of Bellefeuille's arrest.
The Crown's final four witnesses were the surgeon who helped treat Lauzon that night and since, an officer who obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque after work the afternoon before the shooting, a forensic identification supervisor who examined all the bullet strikes inside and outside Bellefeuille's house, and a firearms expert.
Wounds could have been fatal
Last week, Dr. Jacinthe Lampron — a surgeon and medical trauma director of The Ottawa Hospital — testified that she was one of a number of physicians who treated Lauzon when he arrived at the Civic campus trauma unit after the shooting.
He'd been shot four times — in his chest, left forearm, groin and abdomen — and it could have been fatal without immediate treatment, she said. His left forearm in particular was bleeding profusely because his radial artery had been transected, Lampron told court.
A person Lauzon's size has nearly five litres of blood circulating through their body at any time, she said. That morning, Lauzon was administered about four to 4.5 litres of blood products to replace what he'd lost.
Some bullet fragments remain in his body, and more surgeries for his reconstructed left arm are planned, she said.
Also last week, OPP Det. Tracy Allan testified that she obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque at a Money Mart the day before the shooting, after he finished work at a residential construction site.
He was wearing the same clothes and baseball cap that he was arrested in after the shooting.
Bellefeuille was intoxicated
On Monday, the trial heard an admission that a urine sample was taken from Bellefeuille after his arrest and was tested for toxicology. Four hours after the shooting, the concentration of alcohol in his urine was over the legal limit.
Coloured aluminum rods were placed in the holes to approximate the trajectory of the bullets that had passed through them, and a 3D model was created to visualize it, he testified.
Justice Robert Pelletier instructed the jury that Martin had not been qualified as an expert witness, and that the rods he placed in bullet holes can't be taken as evidence of trajectory. The presentation was allowed only as a visual aid to enhance the scene.
Bullet strikes were noted in Lauzon and Mueller's cruisers outside, as well as in the mud room, the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom.
Illegal magazines could hold 22 rounds instead of 5
Firearms expert Toni Brinck of the Centre for Forensic Sciences testified Tuesday that Bellefeuille's long gun, a common and non-restricted SKS semi-automatic rifle, was outfitted with a scope and an adjustable stock, among other enhancements.
Legal magazines can only contain five rounds, but video footage showed Bellefeuille firing nine shots in rapid succession.
Brinck testified that some of the magazines found in the house were illegal because they had been modified to hold 22 rounds instead of five.
The trigger had to be pulled for each shot, she told court.
In cross examination by defence lawyer Leo Russomanno, she said she didn't know if the scope had working batteries when she analyzed the gun, because she didn't test it.
CBC Ottawa multi-platform reporter Kristy Nease has covered news in the capital for 16 years, and previously worked at the Ottawa Citizen. She has handled topics including intimate partner violence, climate and health care, and is currently focused on the courts and judicial affairs. Get in touch: kristy.nease@cbc.ca, or 613-288-6435.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/c ... -1.7526429
Bellefeuille pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his trial in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March.
It's an admitted fact in this case that Bellefeuille killed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Eric Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin when he shot them before dawn on May 11, 2023.
Part of what the jury will have to decide, based on Bellefeuille's upcoming testimony and all the other evidence heard at trial, is what Bellefeuille was thinking and what his intentions were when he repeatedly opened fire.
CBC has now obtained more video exhibits played in court during the prosecution's case, which closed Tuesday. They show what happened after Mueller and Lauzon were shot, from the perspective of Gamache-Asselin, who was behind them.
They also capture part of Bellefeuille's arrest.
The Crown's final four witnesses were the surgeon who helped treat Lauzon that night and since, an officer who obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque after work the afternoon before the shooting, a forensic identification supervisor who examined all the bullet strikes inside and outside Bellefeuille's house, and a firearms expert.
Wounds could have been fatal
Last week, Dr. Jacinthe Lampron — a surgeon and medical trauma director of The Ottawa Hospital — testified that she was one of a number of physicians who treated Lauzon when he arrived at the Civic campus trauma unit after the shooting.
He'd been shot four times — in his chest, left forearm, groin and abdomen — and it could have been fatal without immediate treatment, she said. His left forearm in particular was bleeding profusely because his radial artery had been transected, Lampron told court.
A person Lauzon's size has nearly five litres of blood circulating through their body at any time, she said. That morning, Lauzon was administered about four to 4.5 litres of blood products to replace what he'd lost.
Some bullet fragments remain in his body, and more surgeries for his reconstructed left arm are planned, she said.
Also last week, OPP Det. Tracy Allan testified that she obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque at a Money Mart the day before the shooting, after he finished work at a residential construction site.
He was wearing the same clothes and baseball cap that he was arrested in after the shooting.
Bellefeuille was intoxicated
On Monday, the trial heard an admission that a urine sample was taken from Bellefeuille after his arrest and was tested for toxicology. Four hours after the shooting, the concentration of alcohol in his urine was over the legal limit.
Coloured aluminum rods were placed in the holes to approximate the trajectory of the bullets that had passed through them, and a 3D model was created to visualize it, he testified.
Justice Robert Pelletier instructed the jury that Martin had not been qualified as an expert witness, and that the rods he placed in bullet holes can't be taken as evidence of trajectory. The presentation was allowed only as a visual aid to enhance the scene.
Bullet strikes were noted in Lauzon and Mueller's cruisers outside, as well as in the mud room, the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom.
Illegal magazines could hold 22 rounds instead of 5
Firearms expert Toni Brinck of the Centre for Forensic Sciences testified Tuesday that Bellefeuille's long gun, a common and non-restricted SKS semi-automatic rifle, was outfitted with a scope and an adjustable stock, among other enhancements.
Legal magazines can only contain five rounds, but video footage showed Bellefeuille firing nine shots in rapid succession.
Brinck testified that some of the magazines found in the house were illegal because they had been modified to hold 22 rounds instead of five.
The trigger had to be pulled for each shot, she told court.
In cross examination by defence lawyer Leo Russomanno, she said she didn't know if the scope had working batteries when she analyzed the gun, because she didn't test it.
CBC Ottawa multi-platform reporter Kristy Nease has covered news in the capital for 16 years, and previously worked at the Ottawa Citizen. She has handled topics including intimate partner violence, climate and health care, and is currently focused on the courts and judicial affairs. Get in touch: kristy.nease@cbc.ca, or 613-288-6435.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/c ... -1.7526429
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Michael Jack
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Man accused of murdering OPP officer testifies in his own defence
The man accused of murdering an Ontario Provincial Police officer and injuring two others in Bourget, Ont. nearly two years ago told the jury at his murder trial that he didn’t hear police announce themselves inside his home around 2:30 a.m. on May 11, 2023, moments before he fired several shots at them through his bedroom wall, just steps away.
Alain Bellefeuille took the stand in his own defence Thursday.
He admits to killing OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller, and injuring constables Marc Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin. The officers had been sent to do a wellness check on Bellefeuille after his neighbour called 911 after hearing a gunshot, worried Bellefeuille had shot himself.
Part of what the jury will have to decide is whether Bellefeuille knew he was shooting at police and intended to kill them or if it was self-defence. Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Bellefeuille is testifying in French. He told the court he was “very nervous and anxious” when asked how he was feeling Thursday by one of his lawyers, Biagio Del Greco, saying he’s been incarcerated for awhile and not used to being in front of a lot of people.
Feared an intruder
Bellefeuille testified when he heard banging at his back door in the middle of the night and saw flashlights, “immediately I think it’s an intruder trying to knock down my rear door.”
After the shooting, he told the court, “I don’t understand what happened. The why, the how. I can’t register what happened with a cop here.”
When asked why he leaned over Mueller and said, “you f—ed with the wrong motherf—er” Bellefeuille replied, “it’s an expression that came without thinking.”
Bellefeuille said he tried to disarm Mueller but realized his firearm was still holstered and left it there.
Court earlier saw footage of Bellefeuille ripping Mueller’s body-warn camera off him.
“I don’t know why I took the camera off. I can’t tell you, I’m not sure,” he said.
Bellefeuille said he felt he might be in danger so fired additional gunshots at the police cruisers outside. He said he shot in the direction of a spotlight but couldn’t see, saying he understands in retrospect the vehicles would’ve been police cruisers.
“In this moment I definitely feel my actions were not appropriate … because once again I have major respect for police officers, and I don’t know what happened other than it was an impulse.”
Bellefeuille got emotional at times on the stand when he was asked if he remembered saying, “hang in there, buddy,” and “don’t die, buddy.” He testified he was trying to encourage Mueller while paramedics tried to save his life.
“Because I didn’t want him to die.”
The day before the shooting
Bellefeuille told the jury he’d worked as a contractor—doing everything from painting and drywall to plumbing and flooring.
“I built up a good reputation for my work.”
On May 10, the day before the shooting, Bellefeuille testified he woke up at 6 a.m. and went to work at a job in Orléans until 4 p.m.
Afterwards, he went to Home Depot to try and buy flooring for his camper but didn’t find what he was looking for. He cashed a cheque at the Money Mart on Merivale Road and then went to Lowes on Hunt Club, he said.
Bellefeuille testified he stopped for gas in Vars and bought several cans of Jack Daniel’s Coca-Cola.
He also dropped off the flooring he’d purchased at the camper that was parked on a friend’s property then had a drink or two with the friend.
The night before the shooting
Bellefeuille says he returned to his home around 9 or 9:30 p.m., where he continued drinking cans of Jack and Coke.
Del Greco asked how many cans he’d consumed.
“I’d say about 10,” Bellefeuille replied.
“Is that a normal amount for you?” Del Greco asked.
“In general, I’d say yes.”
Bellefeuille was asked to describe his level of intoxication.
“Seven out of 10, roughly,” he replied.
“How does it affect you?” Del Greco asked.
“Not much.”
Bellefeuille said he’d rented the home on Laval Street where the shooting happened for about five to six years, and he was in the process of moving out.
After returning home, he said he was checking e-mails on his phone and prepping things for his move. He was listening to heavy rock and country music on his DeWalt radio.
Bellefeuille said it was a normal day with the only difference being that he was in the midst of moving. Because he was so busy with work and preparing to move, he was only getting about four to five hours of sleep a night, he told the jury.
Bellefeuille said around 2 a.m. he realized it was getting late and fell asleep right away in his work clothes.
“I was very tired; I just passed out.”
His work attire included paint-splattered pants with knee pads, a hat and steel-toed boots.
Del Greco asked Bellefeuille if it was normal for him to go to bed dressed.
He said “it happens pretty often. Usually, it’s because I’ve been drinking and I’m tired.”
Bellefeuille said he was in a deep sleep and hadn’t been sleeping for very long when he woke up to his dog barking, the sound of banging at the back door, and he saw what looked like a flashlight outside.
Grew up around firearms
Bellefeuille said guns were part of his life growing up—his dad and uncles were hunters. He had a firearms licence and said he used them for hunting and sport shooting.
He kept his SKS semi-automatic rifle at the foot of his bed “strictly for my protection and protection of that house.”
Despite that going against firearms storage rules, Bellefeuille said he took the risk, knowing he lived alone in the country.
He said his friends had been the victims of a home invasion and he himself had been robbed several times in the past.
Earlier this week, firearms expert Toni Brinck from the Centre for Forensic Sciences testified that that Bellefeuille’s long gun was equipped with a scope, after-market rails, adjustable stock and a muzzle attachment.
Body-warn camera footage previously shown in court shows Bellefeuille rapidly fired nine shots. Legal magazines contain five rounds.
Brinck testified that some of the magazines found in Bellefeuille’s house had been modified to hold 22 rounds instead of five and were therefore illegal.
On Thursday, Bellefeuille testified that he modified the magazines for easy to access to bullets “given that when you’re in an emergency situation … like when someone comes into your home there’s no time to reload … that’s why I modified the magazine.”
Bellefeuille testified that the scope attached to the rifle was able to magnify objects three to 12 times and illuminate the crosshair but not the background.
Court saw photos of a night vision scope out of its storage bag on a table in the kitchen area. Bellefeuille testified it hadn’t been put on the rifle.
Bellefeuille told the jury he kept a rifle with such high power because it “potentially could scare someone, it can make a big enough bang.”
He said he had more than $10,000 in cash in his home and hid his wallet somewhere different every night before bed.
Cross-examination is expected to begin Friday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/m ... n-defence/
Alain Bellefeuille took the stand in his own defence Thursday.
He admits to killing OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller, and injuring constables Marc Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin. The officers had been sent to do a wellness check on Bellefeuille after his neighbour called 911 after hearing a gunshot, worried Bellefeuille had shot himself.
Part of what the jury will have to decide is whether Bellefeuille knew he was shooting at police and intended to kill them or if it was self-defence. Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Bellefeuille is testifying in French. He told the court he was “very nervous and anxious” when asked how he was feeling Thursday by one of his lawyers, Biagio Del Greco, saying he’s been incarcerated for awhile and not used to being in front of a lot of people.
Feared an intruder
Bellefeuille testified when he heard banging at his back door in the middle of the night and saw flashlights, “immediately I think it’s an intruder trying to knock down my rear door.”
After the shooting, he told the court, “I don’t understand what happened. The why, the how. I can’t register what happened with a cop here.”
When asked why he leaned over Mueller and said, “you f—ed with the wrong motherf—er” Bellefeuille replied, “it’s an expression that came without thinking.”
Bellefeuille said he tried to disarm Mueller but realized his firearm was still holstered and left it there.
Court earlier saw footage of Bellefeuille ripping Mueller’s body-warn camera off him.
“I don’t know why I took the camera off. I can’t tell you, I’m not sure,” he said.
Bellefeuille said he felt he might be in danger so fired additional gunshots at the police cruisers outside. He said he shot in the direction of a spotlight but couldn’t see, saying he understands in retrospect the vehicles would’ve been police cruisers.
“In this moment I definitely feel my actions were not appropriate … because once again I have major respect for police officers, and I don’t know what happened other than it was an impulse.”
Bellefeuille got emotional at times on the stand when he was asked if he remembered saying, “hang in there, buddy,” and “don’t die, buddy.” He testified he was trying to encourage Mueller while paramedics tried to save his life.
“Because I didn’t want him to die.”
The day before the shooting
Bellefeuille told the jury he’d worked as a contractor—doing everything from painting and drywall to plumbing and flooring.
“I built up a good reputation for my work.”
On May 10, the day before the shooting, Bellefeuille testified he woke up at 6 a.m. and went to work at a job in Orléans until 4 p.m.
Afterwards, he went to Home Depot to try and buy flooring for his camper but didn’t find what he was looking for. He cashed a cheque at the Money Mart on Merivale Road and then went to Lowes on Hunt Club, he said.
Bellefeuille testified he stopped for gas in Vars and bought several cans of Jack Daniel’s Coca-Cola.
He also dropped off the flooring he’d purchased at the camper that was parked on a friend’s property then had a drink or two with the friend.
The night before the shooting
Bellefeuille says he returned to his home around 9 or 9:30 p.m., where he continued drinking cans of Jack and Coke.
Del Greco asked how many cans he’d consumed.
“I’d say about 10,” Bellefeuille replied.
“Is that a normal amount for you?” Del Greco asked.
“In general, I’d say yes.”
Bellefeuille was asked to describe his level of intoxication.
“Seven out of 10, roughly,” he replied.
“How does it affect you?” Del Greco asked.
“Not much.”
Bellefeuille said he’d rented the home on Laval Street where the shooting happened for about five to six years, and he was in the process of moving out.
After returning home, he said he was checking e-mails on his phone and prepping things for his move. He was listening to heavy rock and country music on his DeWalt radio.
Bellefeuille said it was a normal day with the only difference being that he was in the midst of moving. Because he was so busy with work and preparing to move, he was only getting about four to five hours of sleep a night, he told the jury.
Bellefeuille said around 2 a.m. he realized it was getting late and fell asleep right away in his work clothes.
“I was very tired; I just passed out.”
His work attire included paint-splattered pants with knee pads, a hat and steel-toed boots.
Del Greco asked Bellefeuille if it was normal for him to go to bed dressed.
He said “it happens pretty often. Usually, it’s because I’ve been drinking and I’m tired.”
Bellefeuille said he was in a deep sleep and hadn’t been sleeping for very long when he woke up to his dog barking, the sound of banging at the back door, and he saw what looked like a flashlight outside.
Grew up around firearms
Bellefeuille said guns were part of his life growing up—his dad and uncles were hunters. He had a firearms licence and said he used them for hunting and sport shooting.
He kept his SKS semi-automatic rifle at the foot of his bed “strictly for my protection and protection of that house.”
Despite that going against firearms storage rules, Bellefeuille said he took the risk, knowing he lived alone in the country.
He said his friends had been the victims of a home invasion and he himself had been robbed several times in the past.
Earlier this week, firearms expert Toni Brinck from the Centre for Forensic Sciences testified that that Bellefeuille’s long gun was equipped with a scope, after-market rails, adjustable stock and a muzzle attachment.
Body-warn camera footage previously shown in court shows Bellefeuille rapidly fired nine shots. Legal magazines contain five rounds.
Brinck testified that some of the magazines found in Bellefeuille’s house had been modified to hold 22 rounds instead of five and were therefore illegal.
On Thursday, Bellefeuille testified that he modified the magazines for easy to access to bullets “given that when you’re in an emergency situation … like when someone comes into your home there’s no time to reload … that’s why I modified the magazine.”
Bellefeuille testified that the scope attached to the rifle was able to magnify objects three to 12 times and illuminate the crosshair but not the background.
Court saw photos of a night vision scope out of its storage bag on a table in the kitchen area. Bellefeuille testified it hadn’t been put on the rifle.
Bellefeuille told the jury he kept a rifle with such high power because it “potentially could scare someone, it can make a big enough bang.”
He said he had more than $10,000 in cash in his home and hid his wallet somewhere different every night before bed.
Cross-examination is expected to begin Friday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/m ... n-defence/
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'I was in a nightmare': What Alain Bellefeuille was thinking when he killed an OPP officer
In emotional testimony, Bellefeuille described waking to strange noises, crouching by his bed with a loaded weapon and realizing too late the people entering his house were police.
Wearing a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar and a black blazer with no tie, Alain Bellefeuille took the witness stand for the first time, nearly two years to the day since he shot three Ontario Provincial Police officers during a wellness check turned deadly at his home in Bourget, Ont.
His voice was subdued, sometimes shaky, as he described crouching beside his bed with a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle and opening fire on what he said he thought were intruders. Tears flowed when he recounted the moment he found a gravely injured Sgt. Eric Mueller, who later died.
“My heart was pounding in my ears,” Bellefeuille told the jury in French. “I was in a panic.
Bellefeuille said he awoke around 2:30 a.m. to unfamiliar noise on May 11, 2023. He lived alone with his dog and had long feared a break-in. “I realized someone was in the house in the middle of the night, (and thought) there was a chance I might die,” he told the jury.
He recalled a home invasion 16 years earlier in which friends were tied to chairs and beaten at gunpoint. “That made me think a lot … that it could possibly happen (to me), especially living in the countryside, where I was.” He’d also been robbed in the past, including vehicle thefts and a break-in at his former home in Gatineau.
Bellefeuille kept a firearm in the bedroom for protection. His wallet, often holding large amounts of cash, would be hidden at the end of each day. “It could be anywhere in the house,” he said. Police later found a wallet containing $10,000 concealed under the bathroom sink.
The court heard that Bellefeuille is Algonquin, with status through the Alliance Autochtone du Québec. Bellefeuille said he learned of his heritage in his mid-twenties and grew up cut off from that part of his identity. “It’s not uncommon for our traditions to get lost over time,” he said. While incarcerated, he has taken part in smudging ceremonies and healing circles.
On May 10, the day before the shooting, Bellefeuille said he worked a shift on a construction site, ran errands and dropped off flooring at a trailer he had parked on a friend’s lot. Around 8:30 p.m., he had one or two cans of Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola with a friend near his home. He continued drinking alone afterward, estimating he consumed about 10 cans in total while listening to music and taking his dog on a walk.
He told investigators he felt about “seven out of ten” intoxicated, a number he confirmed in court, before going to bed just after midnight. On the stand, he said he didn’t feel under the influence at the time of the shooting, though a toxicology report showed his urine alcohol level remained above the legal limit four hours later.
The firearm, acquired legally around 2012, was kept in his home because it was a large-calibre weapon capable of making a loud noise. Jurors heard that Bellefeuille had previously used the rifle at a shooting range and modified it with aftermarket rails, a compensator, and an adjustable stock. When asked what he had to do to ready it for firing, Bellefeuille replied, “Absolutely nothing. There was a round in the chamber. The magazine was already in the magwell, and the safety was off.” He had modified the magazine to hold about 20 rounds, well above the legal limit of five, because he didn’t want to waste time reloading in an emergency.
Bellefeuille testified that the house was completely dark. He saw a beam of light and the shadow of a person he believed was armed. “It looked like he had a gun in his hand,” he said of the officer shown holding a flashlight in body-worn camera footage.
It took fractions of a second for Bellefeuille to fire.
Asked if he heard anyone say his name or announce they were police, Bellefeuille replied, “No, unfortunately.” He said he didn’t see any identifying insignia or uniforms and would have reacted differently had he known. “I would have been relieved … definitely. I wouldn’t have seen them as a threat,” he said.
During a 27-second pause in gunfire, Bellefeuile said he waited and hoped the intruder had fled. “I couldn’t see anything,” he said. “There was smoke … my ears were ringing.” But then he heard a shot.
“The first thing I thought was that someone was armed, and the second thing was that I needed to move … I felt vulnerable, like a sitting duck, at that point.”
Bellefeuille moved closer to his bedroom door and spotted a flicker of light behind the living room curtain. Believing the threat was ongoing, he fired again, two more shots toward the source of the light.
The jury has heard that Mueller was fatally wounded almost immediately after entering the home. Const. Marc Lauzon was shot multiple times. Const. François Gamache-Asselin was also struck.
Inside the house, investigators found camouflage décor, firearms-related signage, electronics, tools, and a mounted deer head above a Browning ball cap. “The house was a bit of a disaster,” said Bellefeuille, who had been in the process of moving and had already packed most of his belongings.
Forensic photos show the SKS rifle beside the bed. “To have quick access,” Bellefeuille said. He’d stopped sport shooting over a decade earlier, but kept the weapon.
It was fitted with a scope, though not one equipped for night-vision. “It lights up the crosshair … red if you press it once, green if you press it again. If the object is too close, you wouldn’t see much,” he explained.
The court heard that a separate night-vision scope was found on the kitchen table. Bellefeuille said it had never been mounted on the rifle, just his crossbow. “It’s not something you want to drop on the ground,” he said of the $2,000 gear.
He also had motion-sensor lighting on his patio and non-functioning security cameras mounted outside the house to deter thieves. Jurors saw a forensic photo showing blood pooled on a wooden platform outside the patio door, near one of the lights.
Bellefeuille testified that, after the shooting, he removed his rifle’s magazine and left the weapon next to Mueller before calling 911. “I had no reason to continue,” he said. He told the dispatcher: “I shot a police, unfortunately. He broke into my house.”
Asked what he wanted to happen that night, Bellefeuille answered, “I didn’t want anyone to die.” When pressed on his emotions, he said, “I was in a nightmare. I thought it was a home invasion. Then I realized it was police I had shot.”
Article contentis testimony started the defence phase of the trial after more than five weeks of Crown evidence. The jury has already seen bullet strikes documented in multiple rooms of the house and the officers’ vehicles outside, watched body-worn camera footage from the aftermath, and heard expert testimony about the SKS rifle’s extended magazine.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. His cross-examination was expected to begin on May 9.
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Wearing a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar and a black blazer with no tie, Alain Bellefeuille took the witness stand for the first time, nearly two years to the day since he shot three Ontario Provincial Police officers during a wellness check turned deadly at his home in Bourget, Ont.
His voice was subdued, sometimes shaky, as he described crouching beside his bed with a loaded SKS semi-automatic rifle and opening fire on what he said he thought were intruders. Tears flowed when he recounted the moment he found a gravely injured Sgt. Eric Mueller, who later died.
“My heart was pounding in my ears,” Bellefeuille told the jury in French. “I was in a panic.
Bellefeuille said he awoke around 2:30 a.m. to unfamiliar noise on May 11, 2023. He lived alone with his dog and had long feared a break-in. “I realized someone was in the house in the middle of the night, (and thought) there was a chance I might die,” he told the jury.
He recalled a home invasion 16 years earlier in which friends were tied to chairs and beaten at gunpoint. “That made me think a lot … that it could possibly happen (to me), especially living in the countryside, where I was.” He’d also been robbed in the past, including vehicle thefts and a break-in at his former home in Gatineau.
Bellefeuille kept a firearm in the bedroom for protection. His wallet, often holding large amounts of cash, would be hidden at the end of each day. “It could be anywhere in the house,” he said. Police later found a wallet containing $10,000 concealed under the bathroom sink.
The court heard that Bellefeuille is Algonquin, with status through the Alliance Autochtone du Québec. Bellefeuille said he learned of his heritage in his mid-twenties and grew up cut off from that part of his identity. “It’s not uncommon for our traditions to get lost over time,” he said. While incarcerated, he has taken part in smudging ceremonies and healing circles.
On May 10, the day before the shooting, Bellefeuille said he worked a shift on a construction site, ran errands and dropped off flooring at a trailer he had parked on a friend’s lot. Around 8:30 p.m., he had one or two cans of Jack Daniels and Coca-Cola with a friend near his home. He continued drinking alone afterward, estimating he consumed about 10 cans in total while listening to music and taking his dog on a walk.
He told investigators he felt about “seven out of ten” intoxicated, a number he confirmed in court, before going to bed just after midnight. On the stand, he said he didn’t feel under the influence at the time of the shooting, though a toxicology report showed his urine alcohol level remained above the legal limit four hours later.
The firearm, acquired legally around 2012, was kept in his home because it was a large-calibre weapon capable of making a loud noise. Jurors heard that Bellefeuille had previously used the rifle at a shooting range and modified it with aftermarket rails, a compensator, and an adjustable stock. When asked what he had to do to ready it for firing, Bellefeuille replied, “Absolutely nothing. There was a round in the chamber. The magazine was already in the magwell, and the safety was off.” He had modified the magazine to hold about 20 rounds, well above the legal limit of five, because he didn’t want to waste time reloading in an emergency.
Bellefeuille testified that the house was completely dark. He saw a beam of light and the shadow of a person he believed was armed. “It looked like he had a gun in his hand,” he said of the officer shown holding a flashlight in body-worn camera footage.
It took fractions of a second for Bellefeuille to fire.
Asked if he heard anyone say his name or announce they were police, Bellefeuille replied, “No, unfortunately.” He said he didn’t see any identifying insignia or uniforms and would have reacted differently had he known. “I would have been relieved … definitely. I wouldn’t have seen them as a threat,” he said.
During a 27-second pause in gunfire, Bellefeuile said he waited and hoped the intruder had fled. “I couldn’t see anything,” he said. “There was smoke … my ears were ringing.” But then he heard a shot.
“The first thing I thought was that someone was armed, and the second thing was that I needed to move … I felt vulnerable, like a sitting duck, at that point.”
Bellefeuille moved closer to his bedroom door and spotted a flicker of light behind the living room curtain. Believing the threat was ongoing, he fired again, two more shots toward the source of the light.
The jury has heard that Mueller was fatally wounded almost immediately after entering the home. Const. Marc Lauzon was shot multiple times. Const. François Gamache-Asselin was also struck.
Inside the house, investigators found camouflage décor, firearms-related signage, electronics, tools, and a mounted deer head above a Browning ball cap. “The house was a bit of a disaster,” said Bellefeuille, who had been in the process of moving and had already packed most of his belongings.
Forensic photos show the SKS rifle beside the bed. “To have quick access,” Bellefeuille said. He’d stopped sport shooting over a decade earlier, but kept the weapon.
It was fitted with a scope, though not one equipped for night-vision. “It lights up the crosshair … red if you press it once, green if you press it again. If the object is too close, you wouldn’t see much,” he explained.
The court heard that a separate night-vision scope was found on the kitchen table. Bellefeuille said it had never been mounted on the rifle, just his crossbow. “It’s not something you want to drop on the ground,” he said of the $2,000 gear.
He also had motion-sensor lighting on his patio and non-functioning security cameras mounted outside the house to deter thieves. Jurors saw a forensic photo showing blood pooled on a wooden platform outside the patio door, near one of the lights.
Bellefeuille testified that, after the shooting, he removed his rifle’s magazine and left the weapon next to Mueller before calling 911. “I had no reason to continue,” he said. He told the dispatcher: “I shot a police, unfortunately. He broke into my house.”
Asked what he wanted to happen that night, Bellefeuille answered, “I didn’t want anyone to die.” When pressed on his emotions, he said, “I was in a nightmare. I thought it was a home invasion. Then I realized it was police I had shot.”
Article contentis testimony started the defence phase of the trial after more than five weeks of Crown evidence. The jury has already seen bullet strikes documented in multiple rooms of the house and the officers’ vehicles outside, watched body-worn camera footage from the aftermath, and heard expert testimony about the SKS rifle’s extended magazine.
Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. His cross-examination was expected to begin on May 9.
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Crown grills Bellefeuille, counters panic defence in death of OPP officer
Alain Bellefeuille testified he feared for his life when he opened fire on police. Prosecutors argue evidence suggests he was prepared to use deadly force.
Alain Bellefeuille called the early morning of May 11, 2023 — when he shot three Ontario Provincial Police officers, one fatally — the “worst day of my life.”
Under cross-examination Monday in the L’Orignal Courthouse, the 41-year-old gave brief answers in measured tone as prosecutors scrutinized his mindset and choices during the wellness check gone wrong.
Prosecutor François Dulude questioned whether Bellefeuille was acting out of panic, as he has claimed, or whether he was prepared to use lethal force.
“You had more weapons in your bedroom than pillows,” Dulude said in French, referencing the SKS rifle used in the shooting, two hunting knives and ammunition.
“If you count the knives,” Bellefeuille replied.
Bellefeuille testified last week that he feared a home invasion and kept weapons nearby for protection. On Monday, the Crown used video and still images to determine what he perceived before firing.
Shown footage of officers entering the house, Bellefeuille said he remembered seeing a figure holding what “looked like a gun,” but couldn’t make out more than a “shadow.” He denied seeing any uniforms, badge, radio or the word “POLICE,” which appeared in yellow across the officers’ vests.
When the Crown referred to police calling his name and announcing themselves before entering, Bellefeuille said he didn’t hear it.
According to video and testimony, Const. Marc Lauzon entered the home first, followed by Sgt. Eric Mueller. At that point, Mueller’s handgun was still holstered.
Bellefeuille confirmed he fired from inside his bedroom, through the window frame, then toward the door of his mudroom. At the time, he said, he didn’t know how many shots he had fired. “I wasn’t counting,” he said. After reviewing the footage, he agreed with the Crown that it was 10 rounds.
Asked whether he considered the bullets might go through the walls, Bellefeuille said, “That was the last thing on my mind. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Dulude followed up, pointing to his background in construction and familiarity with firearms. “You knew those rounds would punch through plaster?” the prosecutor inquired. “Today, yes,” Bellefeuille replied. “At the time, I didn’t think about it.”
Dulude challenged the notion that Bellefeuille had fired to scare anyone. “The shots you fired, Mr. Bellefeuille, those weren’t warning shots.”
Bellefeuille replied, “It was a warning, but yes, there was a possibility I could injure someone.”
Video played in court showed Bellefeuille removing Mueller’s body-worn camera. He told the jury it was a reflex. “I didn’t even know it was recording,” he said. Dulude suggested the act was deliberate, asking if he understood what removing the camera might imply. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking about that,” Bellefeuille said.
Audio in another clip captured Sgt. Mueller struggling to breathe. Dulude told the jury that while Bellefeuille may have believed intruders were in the house, the footage showed a uniformed officer, unarmed and critically wounded. “An intruder doesn’t wear a vest, a badge, a camera and a radio,” Dulude said.
Bellefeuille replied he hadn’t registered any of it in the moment. “I didn’t know what to do. I thought there was still a threat,” he said.
The same recording captured Bellefeuille speaking aloud: “You f—ed with the wrong motherf—er. Shouldn’t have broken into my house. Sorry about that.” Asked about the statement, Bellefeuille told the jury, “I was talking to myself. I was overwhelmed.” He admitted that, by that point, he knew it was a police officer on the floor.
Dulude challenged that explanation. “You’re talking to yourself, Mr. Bellefeuille, while shouting. Is that it?” he said. “It’s not ‘help.’ It’s not ‘get an ambulance right now.’”
Bellefeuille responded, “I was in shock. A million thoughts were going through my head. I wasn’t registering what was in front of me.”
Dulude pressed further. “What you’re saying there, that’s a statement, isn’t it?”
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
He told the court that what he now understands is different from what he believed in the moment. He repeated that throughout the day.
Asked how often he thinks about the shooting, he said, “Several times a day. I have difficulty sleeping.”
Cross-examination is scheduled to continue May 13.
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Dulude told the jury, “You don’t give a warning with 10 shots. You make a statement.”
He then asked why Bellefeuille fired toward the mudroom if he believed only one person had entered.
“Because that’s where I saw the shadow last,” Bellefeuille said. “I didn’t know where the person was anymore.”
Later in the cross-examination, the Crown turned to why Bellefeuille didn’t retreat until after firing 17 shots in total. He maintained he was acting out of fear. “It was panic,” he said. “I didn’t think, I reacted.”
He also didn’t call 911 until after the shooting. “I wasn’t thinking about my phone. I was thinking about my life,” he said. Dulude reminded him the phone was on the nightstand beside his bed while Sgt. Mueller, lying on the floor, was “just trying to survive.”
At that point, Bellefeuille hadn’t been physically harmed. Dulude pressed the contrast. “You say you were in danger. You were breathing. You didn’t have a single scratch, Mr. Bellefeuille.”
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Alain Bellefeuille called the early morning of May 11, 2023 — when he shot three Ontario Provincial Police officers, one fatally — the “worst day of my life.”
Under cross-examination Monday in the L’Orignal Courthouse, the 41-year-old gave brief answers in measured tone as prosecutors scrutinized his mindset and choices during the wellness check gone wrong.
Prosecutor François Dulude questioned whether Bellefeuille was acting out of panic, as he has claimed, or whether he was prepared to use lethal force.
“You had more weapons in your bedroom than pillows,” Dulude said in French, referencing the SKS rifle used in the shooting, two hunting knives and ammunition.
“If you count the knives,” Bellefeuille replied.
Bellefeuille testified last week that he feared a home invasion and kept weapons nearby for protection. On Monday, the Crown used video and still images to determine what he perceived before firing.
Shown footage of officers entering the house, Bellefeuille said he remembered seeing a figure holding what “looked like a gun,” but couldn’t make out more than a “shadow.” He denied seeing any uniforms, badge, radio or the word “POLICE,” which appeared in yellow across the officers’ vests.
When the Crown referred to police calling his name and announcing themselves before entering, Bellefeuille said he didn’t hear it.
According to video and testimony, Const. Marc Lauzon entered the home first, followed by Sgt. Eric Mueller. At that point, Mueller’s handgun was still holstered.
Bellefeuille confirmed he fired from inside his bedroom, through the window frame, then toward the door of his mudroom. At the time, he said, he didn’t know how many shots he had fired. “I wasn’t counting,” he said. After reviewing the footage, he agreed with the Crown that it was 10 rounds.
Asked whether he considered the bullets might go through the walls, Bellefeuille said, “That was the last thing on my mind. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Dulude followed up, pointing to his background in construction and familiarity with firearms. “You knew those rounds would punch through plaster?” the prosecutor inquired. “Today, yes,” Bellefeuille replied. “At the time, I didn’t think about it.”
Dulude challenged the notion that Bellefeuille had fired to scare anyone. “The shots you fired, Mr. Bellefeuille, those weren’t warning shots.”
Bellefeuille replied, “It was a warning, but yes, there was a possibility I could injure someone.”
Video played in court showed Bellefeuille removing Mueller’s body-worn camera. He told the jury it was a reflex. “I didn’t even know it was recording,” he said. Dulude suggested the act was deliberate, asking if he understood what removing the camera might imply. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking about that,” Bellefeuille said.
Audio in another clip captured Sgt. Mueller struggling to breathe. Dulude told the jury that while Bellefeuille may have believed intruders were in the house, the footage showed a uniformed officer, unarmed and critically wounded. “An intruder doesn’t wear a vest, a badge, a camera and a radio,” Dulude said.
Bellefeuille replied he hadn’t registered any of it in the moment. “I didn’t know what to do. I thought there was still a threat,” he said.
The same recording captured Bellefeuille speaking aloud: “You f—ed with the wrong motherf—er. Shouldn’t have broken into my house. Sorry about that.” Asked about the statement, Bellefeuille told the jury, “I was talking to myself. I was overwhelmed.” He admitted that, by that point, he knew it was a police officer on the floor.
Dulude challenged that explanation. “You’re talking to yourself, Mr. Bellefeuille, while shouting. Is that it?” he said. “It’s not ‘help.’ It’s not ‘get an ambulance right now.’”
Bellefeuille responded, “I was in shock. A million thoughts were going through my head. I wasn’t registering what was in front of me.”
Dulude pressed further. “What you’re saying there, that’s a statement, isn’t it?”
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
He told the court that what he now understands is different from what he believed in the moment. He repeated that throughout the day.
Asked how often he thinks about the shooting, he said, “Several times a day. I have difficulty sleeping.”
Cross-examination is scheduled to continue May 13.
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Dulude told the jury, “You don’t give a warning with 10 shots. You make a statement.”
He then asked why Bellefeuille fired toward the mudroom if he believed only one person had entered.
“Because that’s where I saw the shadow last,” Bellefeuille said. “I didn’t know where the person was anymore.”
Later in the cross-examination, the Crown turned to why Bellefeuille didn’t retreat until after firing 17 shots in total. He maintained he was acting out of fear. “It was panic,” he said. “I didn’t think, I reacted.”
He also didn’t call 911 until after the shooting. “I wasn’t thinking about my phone. I was thinking about my life,” he said. Dulude reminded him the phone was on the nightstand beside his bed while Sgt. Mueller, lying on the floor, was “just trying to survive.”
At that point, Bellefeuille hadn’t been physically harmed. Dulude pressed the contrast. “You say you were in danger. You were breathing. You didn’t have a single scratch, Mr. Bellefeuille.”
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Accused had options other than shooting OPP officers in Bourget: Crown
Alain Bellefeuille had a slew of other options the night he shot at the OPP officers sent to his home in Bourget in the middle of the night to check on his wellbeing, the Crown told the jury at his murder trial on Monday.
“The only thing you’re thinking about, Mr. Bellefeuille, is to arm yourself in silence and in the dark and wait for them,” François Dulude said during cross-examination.
“It’s one of my options,” Bellefeuille replied.
It’s not disputed nor contested that Bellefeuille killed Sgt. Eric Muller, critically injured Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023.
Bellefeuille maintains he thought he was firing at intruders and didn’t know they were police officers. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
“You had 14 seconds to simply say stop I have a gun,” Dulude suggested.
“It was too late in my head. I thought my life was really in danger at that point and I was going to die,” Bellefeuille said.
Rifle turned into ‘war machine’: Crown
Bellefeuille also rejected Dulude’s suggestion that he’d turned his semi-automatic rifle into a “war machine.”
“You would not consider this gun that you modified, piece by piece, a war machine?”
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
The gun was legal, but it was equipped with an illegal magazine Bellfeuille modified so that it could hold more than 20 bullets instead of the five it was permitted to have.
Dulude put to Bellefeuille that firing a warning shot wasn’t an option because he knew they were police officers and that would have garnered a response.
“No,” Bellefeuille maintained.
The Crown has said the officers were ambushed.
The officers responded to the home on Laval Street after a neighbour called 911, reporting she heard a gunshot and was worried Bellefeuille had shot himself.
On Monday the Crown suggested that a shell casing seized from one of Bellefeuille’s pockets was the “shell from the gunshot that (your neighbour) would’ve heard.”
Bellefeuille said it wasn’t but didn’t say how it got there.
Bellefeuille previously testified he felt he was “in a nightmare” in those early hours.
‘You are not trembling’
In going over footage from Mueller’s body-warn camera, Dulude commented on Bellefeuille’s demeanour.
“You’re calm, Mr. Bellefeuille.”
“At this point I’m still in a panic, in shock,” Bellefeuille replied.
“You are, Mr. Bellefeuille, in control. You are not trembling,” Dulude said.
“That I couldn’t tell you.”
Bellefeuille testified when he leaned over a dying Mueller saying “you f—ed with the wrong motherf—er. Should’ve never broke into my house. Sorry about that,” that he was talking to himself, not Mueller.
Bellefeuille also said he tried to disarm Mueller but stopped when he realized the gun was still in its holster.
“What I’m suggesting to you Mr. Bellefeuille is that the reason why you’re trying to take away his gun is because you want to put it either in his hand or next to him,” Dulude put to Bellefeuille.
“No,” he answered.
“You want to try and make the paramedics believe and the police officers that you defended yourself,” he argued.
“It was in that moment what I thought, I was trying to defend myself,” Bellefeuille replied.
Last week Bellefeuille testified he heard banging at the back of his house and saw flashlights shining in but said he never heard the officers announce themselves as police when they entered the house.
Bellefeuille said he’d had hearing issues before but had never gone to the doctor about it.
“You didn’t consult a doctor because you’re making this up,” Dulude said.
Bellefeuille said it was only after he was standing over Mueller, wearing a vest emblazoned with the word “police” that he realized he was a police officer.
“Rather than helping Sgt. Mueller you’re ripping his camera off,” Dulude said. Bellefeuille had previously said he didn’t want to be recorded but when asked why, he said he didn’t know.
Bellefeuille said he fired four “cover shots” outside to give him time to think and that he thought there was still a threat.
“You’ve never been so scared in your life at this point and what you do, Mr. Bellefeuille, in that instance when you realize you’ve shot a cop who is gravely injured is that you then go and shoot at a cop car,” Dulude pressed.
Bellefeuille said he was blinded by a light on one of the police cruisers and could not see the cruisers he struck.
Cross-examination is expected to continue Tuesday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/a ... get-crown/
“The only thing you’re thinking about, Mr. Bellefeuille, is to arm yourself in silence and in the dark and wait for them,” François Dulude said during cross-examination.
“It’s one of my options,” Bellefeuille replied.
It’s not disputed nor contested that Bellefeuille killed Sgt. Eric Muller, critically injured Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023.
Bellefeuille maintains he thought he was firing at intruders and didn’t know they were police officers. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
“You had 14 seconds to simply say stop I have a gun,” Dulude suggested.
“It was too late in my head. I thought my life was really in danger at that point and I was going to die,” Bellefeuille said.
Rifle turned into ‘war machine’: Crown
Bellefeuille also rejected Dulude’s suggestion that he’d turned his semi-automatic rifle into a “war machine.”
“You would not consider this gun that you modified, piece by piece, a war machine?”
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
The gun was legal, but it was equipped with an illegal magazine Bellfeuille modified so that it could hold more than 20 bullets instead of the five it was permitted to have.
Dulude put to Bellefeuille that firing a warning shot wasn’t an option because he knew they were police officers and that would have garnered a response.
“No,” Bellefeuille maintained.
The Crown has said the officers were ambushed.
The officers responded to the home on Laval Street after a neighbour called 911, reporting she heard a gunshot and was worried Bellefeuille had shot himself.
On Monday the Crown suggested that a shell casing seized from one of Bellefeuille’s pockets was the “shell from the gunshot that (your neighbour) would’ve heard.”
Bellefeuille said it wasn’t but didn’t say how it got there.
Bellefeuille previously testified he felt he was “in a nightmare” in those early hours.
‘You are not trembling’
In going over footage from Mueller’s body-warn camera, Dulude commented on Bellefeuille’s demeanour.
“You’re calm, Mr. Bellefeuille.”
“At this point I’m still in a panic, in shock,” Bellefeuille replied.
“You are, Mr. Bellefeuille, in control. You are not trembling,” Dulude said.
“That I couldn’t tell you.”
Bellefeuille testified when he leaned over a dying Mueller saying “you f—ed with the wrong motherf—er. Should’ve never broke into my house. Sorry about that,” that he was talking to himself, not Mueller.
Bellefeuille also said he tried to disarm Mueller but stopped when he realized the gun was still in its holster.
“What I’m suggesting to you Mr. Bellefeuille is that the reason why you’re trying to take away his gun is because you want to put it either in his hand or next to him,” Dulude put to Bellefeuille.
“No,” he answered.
“You want to try and make the paramedics believe and the police officers that you defended yourself,” he argued.
“It was in that moment what I thought, I was trying to defend myself,” Bellefeuille replied.
Last week Bellefeuille testified he heard banging at the back of his house and saw flashlights shining in but said he never heard the officers announce themselves as police when they entered the house.
Bellefeuille said he’d had hearing issues before but had never gone to the doctor about it.
“You didn’t consult a doctor because you’re making this up,” Dulude said.
Bellefeuille said it was only after he was standing over Mueller, wearing a vest emblazoned with the word “police” that he realized he was a police officer.
“Rather than helping Sgt. Mueller you’re ripping his camera off,” Dulude said. Bellefeuille had previously said he didn’t want to be recorded but when asked why, he said he didn’t know.
Bellefeuille said he fired four “cover shots” outside to give him time to think and that he thought there was still a threat.
“You’ve never been so scared in your life at this point and what you do, Mr. Bellefeuille, in that instance when you realize you’ve shot a cop who is gravely injured is that you then go and shoot at a cop car,” Dulude pressed.
Bellefeuille said he was blinded by a light on one of the police cruisers and could not see the cruisers he struck.
Cross-examination is expected to continue Tuesday.
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Crown attacks Bellefeuille's credibility on his 3rd day of testimony
On the second day of cross-examination and the third day testifying in his own defence on Tuesday, the Crown leaned in to attack the credibility of Alain Bellefeuille, who's accused of murdering an Ontario Provincial Police officer and attempting to murder two others during a wellness check two years ago.
In court, a clip of video from Sgt. Eric Mueller's body-worn camera was played back in which Bellefeuille is heard saying in French, "Sorry buddy, it's not your house. You didn't have the right." This was after he had mortally wounded Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon, and fired more shots in the direction of Const. François Gamache-Asselin outside, and before he called 911.
At first, Bellefeuille told court he didn't remember saying those words, and that he'd never say something like that. After the video was played back, he testified he was talking out loud to himself.
"Is it possible you're only talking to yourself when you say something incriminating?" assistant Crown attorney François Dulude asked.
"I talk to myself all the time. Everyone talks to themselves," Bellefeuille testified.
'When will you tell us the truth?'
On Monday, another clip was played in which Bellefeuille can be heard screaming, "Break and enter, motherf--ker!" seconds after firing at Mueller and Lauzon.
Bellefeuille told court he didn't remember saying anything like that around that time, but that it was possible. After the tape was played back, he again testified that he was talking to himself and was overwhelmed in that moment.
"When will you tell us the truth and take responsibility for all the things you said to him?" Dulude asked Tuesday.
"I just said it's directed at him but I was talking to myself. That's all I can tell you," Bellefeuille told court.
Bellefeuille is testifying in French under questioning by Dulude, also in French. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his bilingual trial in Superior Court in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March.
It's an admitted fact that Bellefeuille did the shooting after police were called to his home in Bourget, Ont., for a wellness check called in by concerned neighbours. In question is what he was thinking and when he repeatedly fired his rifle, and what his intentions were.
'There's no story to fabricate'
Also on Tuesday, Dulude asked Bellefeuille about his 911 call, made at 2:37 a.m. after he'd fired a total of 17 shots in three separate bursts. On the recording, he tells the dispatcher in English: "Hi, I fired a shot.... Someone broke into my house but unfortunately I shot a police officer."
"Even then, you know that Sgt. Mueller is seriously injured, and you're trying to justify your actions?" Dulude asked. "You're starting to fabricate your story. To put on a show.... You're not helping Sgt. Mueller, you want to help yourself."
"The only reason I wanted to say that was so they would understand why I fired a shot," Bellefeuille testified. "[It] was to demonstrate that they could come to help him because I didn't intend to be a threat at this point.... There's no story to fabricate.... It wasn't a charade."
Dulude suggested that Bellefeuille ended up putting the magazine he'd used — which was illegally modified to hold 22 rounds instead of the usual five — into a cooler in his hunting room in an effort to hide it.
Bellefeuille repeatedly testified he put it there with the rest of his magazines out of habit, because that's where he typically stored them.
'I was just about to go to sleep'
Later Tuesday, the Crown asked Bellefeuille about where he'd put his rifle before paramedics arrived. Earlier in the trial, one of the paramedics testified that they found the rifle placed on top of Mueller's chest, and that a colleague had moved it off to the side.
Bellefeuille agreed that the weapon weighed 20 to 30 pounds and that Mueller was having trouble breathing. He told the court that he couldn't remember if he had leaned it against the sergeant or put it on top of him, but Bellefeuille said his goal was for police to see it and learn that he was no longer armed.
For the first time at the trial, video was played of a police interrogation that took place on May 11, 2023, just hours after the shooting. Bellefeuille testified he was being honest during the nearly four-hour interview, but that he hadn't slept for 36 hours and that he occasionally gave imprecise answers.
One of the contested issues at this trial has been when, or whether, Bellefeuille had been asleep before police arrived. During his cross-examination on Monday, Bellefeuille was steadfast that he had fallen asleep sometime after 2 a.m. On Tuesday, the Crown played a section of video from the interrogation, to dig into the issue.
"You knew they were police officers," the detective asks Bellefeuille.
"If you say so, but I was in the bedroom," he replies.
"What were you doing in the bedroom?"
"I was just about to go to sleep."
Asked about the inconsistency — whether he had been asleep or was about to go to sleep before police arrived — Bellefeuille testified: "If we go to the next line, he asks me what happened next. I say, that's what happened next . I had trouble understanding the timing of when he was speaking to me."
Bellefeuille told court he'd been questioned for hours, he was exhausted and hadn't slept, and that the detective kept questioning him. "At that point, I answered. He wasn't taking no for an answer, so I started talking to him," Bellefeuille testified.
"Did you tell the truth?" Dulude asked.
"Yes, when I answered him."
"The truth is, you were about to go to sleep," Dulude continued.
"Yes."
"You were angry that night."
"Yes, I'm just like everybody else. We all get angry."
'I wasn't too pleased that evening'
Court also heard more Tuesday about what had been going on at Bellefeuille's house before police arrived. In the interview video he tells the detective he wants to understand why police had come to his home. The detective replies that neighbours called police after hearing gunshots, screaming and other noise.
Bellefeuille tells the officer he had been banging on doors, and that "I wasn't too pleased that evening."
On Tuesday, he testified he was angry and frustrated before going to bed because he was being forced to move out of the house he was renting by his landlord. He said he was banging or slamming doors, playing loud music and singing, and possibly screaming.
He denied touching his gun or firing it.
A search for his dog, or something else?
The Crown ended Tuesday by honing in on what Bellefeuille did with Mueller's body-worn camera after he had removed it from Mueller's vest.
Video from the camera was played in court. It shows it in his pocket while he's interacting with paramedics. Then it's grabbed and removed, and can be seen flying through the air before landing on the ground.
Bellefeuille testified he realized he'd had the camera in his pocket while he was inside looking for his dog, and that he had told the paramedics he was looking for his dog because he was worried about him, and hadn't seen him since the shooting.
He appeared to wipe away tears after Dulude pointed out that the dog could have been hit by gunfire. Bellefeuille testified that if he'd known his dog could have been struck, he never would have fired his rifle.
The Crown suggested that going to search for the dog was a ruse to buy time to throw Mueller's camera into the neighbour's yard. Dulude told court that in the video, Bellefeuille says to one of the paramedics, "No police around" before going to look for his dog and throwing the camera. Dulude said he would play that excerpt Wednesday.
Bellefeuille denied saying it.
"You maintain that all this fuss was to bring your dog back," Dulude said, before adding: "Not once do we hear you call his name."
Bellefeuille replied that he wasn't in his right mind at the time, and that he'd been thinking about a thousand things.
His cross examination continues for a third day Wednesday morning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/c ... -1.7533522
In court, a clip of video from Sgt. Eric Mueller's body-worn camera was played back in which Bellefeuille is heard saying in French, "Sorry buddy, it's not your house. You didn't have the right." This was after he had mortally wounded Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon, and fired more shots in the direction of Const. François Gamache-Asselin outside, and before he called 911.
At first, Bellefeuille told court he didn't remember saying those words, and that he'd never say something like that. After the video was played back, he testified he was talking out loud to himself.
"Is it possible you're only talking to yourself when you say something incriminating?" assistant Crown attorney François Dulude asked.
"I talk to myself all the time. Everyone talks to themselves," Bellefeuille testified.
'When will you tell us the truth?'
On Monday, another clip was played in which Bellefeuille can be heard screaming, "Break and enter, motherf--ker!" seconds after firing at Mueller and Lauzon.
Bellefeuille told court he didn't remember saying anything like that around that time, but that it was possible. After the tape was played back, he again testified that he was talking to himself and was overwhelmed in that moment.
"When will you tell us the truth and take responsibility for all the things you said to him?" Dulude asked Tuesday.
"I just said it's directed at him but I was talking to myself. That's all I can tell you," Bellefeuille told court.
Bellefeuille is testifying in French under questioning by Dulude, also in French. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his bilingual trial in Superior Court in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March.
It's an admitted fact that Bellefeuille did the shooting after police were called to his home in Bourget, Ont., for a wellness check called in by concerned neighbours. In question is what he was thinking and when he repeatedly fired his rifle, and what his intentions were.
'There's no story to fabricate'
Also on Tuesday, Dulude asked Bellefeuille about his 911 call, made at 2:37 a.m. after he'd fired a total of 17 shots in three separate bursts. On the recording, he tells the dispatcher in English: "Hi, I fired a shot.... Someone broke into my house but unfortunately I shot a police officer."
"Even then, you know that Sgt. Mueller is seriously injured, and you're trying to justify your actions?" Dulude asked. "You're starting to fabricate your story. To put on a show.... You're not helping Sgt. Mueller, you want to help yourself."
"The only reason I wanted to say that was so they would understand why I fired a shot," Bellefeuille testified. "[It] was to demonstrate that they could come to help him because I didn't intend to be a threat at this point.... There's no story to fabricate.... It wasn't a charade."
Dulude suggested that Bellefeuille ended up putting the magazine he'd used — which was illegally modified to hold 22 rounds instead of the usual five — into a cooler in his hunting room in an effort to hide it.
Bellefeuille repeatedly testified he put it there with the rest of his magazines out of habit, because that's where he typically stored them.
'I was just about to go to sleep'
Later Tuesday, the Crown asked Bellefeuille about where he'd put his rifle before paramedics arrived. Earlier in the trial, one of the paramedics testified that they found the rifle placed on top of Mueller's chest, and that a colleague had moved it off to the side.
Bellefeuille agreed that the weapon weighed 20 to 30 pounds and that Mueller was having trouble breathing. He told the court that he couldn't remember if he had leaned it against the sergeant or put it on top of him, but Bellefeuille said his goal was for police to see it and learn that he was no longer armed.
For the first time at the trial, video was played of a police interrogation that took place on May 11, 2023, just hours after the shooting. Bellefeuille testified he was being honest during the nearly four-hour interview, but that he hadn't slept for 36 hours and that he occasionally gave imprecise answers.
One of the contested issues at this trial has been when, or whether, Bellefeuille had been asleep before police arrived. During his cross-examination on Monday, Bellefeuille was steadfast that he had fallen asleep sometime after 2 a.m. On Tuesday, the Crown played a section of video from the interrogation, to dig into the issue.
"You knew they were police officers," the detective asks Bellefeuille.
"If you say so, but I was in the bedroom," he replies.
"What were you doing in the bedroom?"
"I was just about to go to sleep."
Asked about the inconsistency — whether he had been asleep or was about to go to sleep before police arrived — Bellefeuille testified: "If we go to the next line, he asks me what happened next. I say, that's what happened next . I had trouble understanding the timing of when he was speaking to me."
Bellefeuille told court he'd been questioned for hours, he was exhausted and hadn't slept, and that the detective kept questioning him. "At that point, I answered. He wasn't taking no for an answer, so I started talking to him," Bellefeuille testified.
"Did you tell the truth?" Dulude asked.
"Yes, when I answered him."
"The truth is, you were about to go to sleep," Dulude continued.
"Yes."
"You were angry that night."
"Yes, I'm just like everybody else. We all get angry."
'I wasn't too pleased that evening'
Court also heard more Tuesday about what had been going on at Bellefeuille's house before police arrived. In the interview video he tells the detective he wants to understand why police had come to his home. The detective replies that neighbours called police after hearing gunshots, screaming and other noise.
Bellefeuille tells the officer he had been banging on doors, and that "I wasn't too pleased that evening."
On Tuesday, he testified he was angry and frustrated before going to bed because he was being forced to move out of the house he was renting by his landlord. He said he was banging or slamming doors, playing loud music and singing, and possibly screaming.
He denied touching his gun or firing it.
A search for his dog, or something else?
The Crown ended Tuesday by honing in on what Bellefeuille did with Mueller's body-worn camera after he had removed it from Mueller's vest.
Video from the camera was played in court. It shows it in his pocket while he's interacting with paramedics. Then it's grabbed and removed, and can be seen flying through the air before landing on the ground.
Bellefeuille testified he realized he'd had the camera in his pocket while he was inside looking for his dog, and that he had told the paramedics he was looking for his dog because he was worried about him, and hadn't seen him since the shooting.
He appeared to wipe away tears after Dulude pointed out that the dog could have been hit by gunfire. Bellefeuille testified that if he'd known his dog could have been struck, he never would have fired his rifle.
The Crown suggested that going to search for the dog was a ruse to buy time to throw Mueller's camera into the neighbour's yard. Dulude told court that in the video, Bellefeuille says to one of the paramedics, "No police around" before going to look for his dog and throwing the camera. Dulude said he would play that excerpt Wednesday.
Bellefeuille denied saying it.
"You maintain that all this fuss was to bring your dog back," Dulude said, before adding: "Not once do we hear you call his name."
Bellefeuille replied that he wasn't in his right mind at the time, and that he'd been thinking about a thousand things.
His cross examination continues for a third day Wednesday morning.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/c ... -1.7533522
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Michael Jack
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Accused in OPP officer's killing denies he was in a 'murderous rage'
Closing arguments in Alain Bellefeuille's trial to begin next week, jury could start deliberating Wednesday
The man accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police officer and wounding two others two years ago denied he was in a "murderous rage" the night of the fatal shooting, as the final day of evidence wrapped up in his trial.
Alain Bellefeuille, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, told a Superior Court jury he was angry the night of the incident, but not in the way Crown prosecutors alleged.
"I was angry, yes, but not like what you say," Bellefeuille told assistant Crown attorney François Dulude during cross-examination Wednesday.
Bellefeuille acknowledged he'd been slamming doors and listening to loud music before turning in that night, but said his frustration was directed at his landlord who was forcing him to move, not at police.
Bellefeuille admitted to firing the shots that killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured two others after they entered his home in Bourget, Ont., on May 11, 2023, during a wellness check requested by neighbours. The trial has focused on Bellefeuille's state of mind at the time, and whether he intended to shoot the officers.
He testified over four days under questioning from both the Crown and his own defence lawyer.
The court has seen and heard extensive body-worn camera footage from the officers involved. Testimony was also heard from the responding officers and paramedics, as well as a neighbour who had called police with concerns about Bellefeuille's wellness prior to the shooting.
Bellefeuille has maintained that he didn't realize the men approaching his rented home were police officers, and believed they were trying to break in.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin next week, with jury deliberations expected to start as early as Wednesday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/a ... -1.7534837
The man accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police officer and wounding two others two years ago denied he was in a "murderous rage" the night of the fatal shooting, as the final day of evidence wrapped up in his trial.
Alain Bellefeuille, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, told a Superior Court jury he was angry the night of the incident, but not in the way Crown prosecutors alleged.
"I was angry, yes, but not like what you say," Bellefeuille told assistant Crown attorney François Dulude during cross-examination Wednesday.
Bellefeuille acknowledged he'd been slamming doors and listening to loud music before turning in that night, but said his frustration was directed at his landlord who was forcing him to move, not at police.
Bellefeuille admitted to firing the shots that killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured two others after they entered his home in Bourget, Ont., on May 11, 2023, during a wellness check requested by neighbours. The trial has focused on Bellefeuille's state of mind at the time, and whether he intended to shoot the officers.
He testified over four days under questioning from both the Crown and his own defence lawyer.
The court has seen and heard extensive body-worn camera footage from the officers involved. Testimony was also heard from the responding officers and paramedics, as well as a neighbour who had called police with concerns about Bellefeuille's wellness prior to the shooting.
Bellefeuille has maintained that he didn't realize the men approaching his rented home were police officers, and believed they were trying to break in.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin next week, with jury deliberations expected to start as early as Wednesday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/a ... -1.7534837
Michael Jack, Administrator
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Michael Jack
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Bellefeuille cross-examination ends with implication of deception, self-interest
The Crown questioned Bellefeuille’s actions after Sgt. Mueller was shot, suggesting he misled paramedics and tried to protect himself.
Alain Bellefeuille told the court Wednesday that his rifle may have landed on the chest of Sgt. Eric Mueller as the Ontario Provincial Police officer lay critically wounded. He also acknowledged removing the officer’s body-worn camera and throwing it over a neighbour’s fence.
In the aftermath of the deadly shooting, Mueller lay bleeding heavily on the floor of Bellefeuille’s home in Bourget, Ont. The accused said he placed his firearm near Mueller so responding police would see it right away, but testified that it “may have ended up on him” and that it was “a possibility” the weapon fell across the chest of the dying man.
Crown prosecutor François Dulude asked whether the gun could have landed diagonally across Mueller’s body. “I don’t know,” Bellefeuille said in French.
“You were trying to make it seem like it was his firearm?” Dulude asked. “No,” said Bellefeuille, who maintained he was acting in shock, not malice.
The exchange came during the third and final day of cross-examination, as Bellefeuille continued to describe himself as overwhelmed in the moments after the fatal wellness check on May 11, 2023.
Bellefeuille testified that before paramedics arrived, he tried to disarm Mueller, whose gun was holstered, and removed the officer’s body-worn camera, which he kept in his pocket as first responders approached.
Dulude suggested Bellefeuille was trying to make it appear as though Mueller had drawn his weapon. “That’s not what I was doing,” Bellefeuille said.
The Crown played footage of Bellefeuille pacing on the porch while holding the body camera. “I had a million thoughts in my head,” Bellefeuille said, repeating a phrase he has used repeatedly on the stand to explain gaps in memory, delayed decisions and moments of apparent inaction.
“Among those million thoughts,” Dulude asked, “wasn’t there one about the body camera in your pocket?” The Crown suggested Bellefeuille knowingly kept the device on him until he could discard it.
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
Earlier in the recording, Bellefeuille is heard telling paramedics, “I’m going to get my dog.” But Dulude pointed out that, once inside, Bellefeuille never called the dog’s name and used the opportunity to throw the camera over a neighbour’s fence.
“You weren’t looking after your dog. You were looking after yourself,” Dulude said.
The prosecutor suggested Bellefeuille had been aware paramedics were arriving and was already thinking about concealing evidence. “You weren’t happy to see them because you had more to hide, right?” he asked. Dulude also implied Bellefeuille was scoping out the situation before re-entering the house. “You asked the paramedics if there were any police around, because you knew exactly what you were going to do,” Dulude said.
“I didn’t want it on me,” Bellefeuille said, referring to the camera.
When asked why, he said, “I don’t know.”
As for why he didn’t help paramedics or tend to Mueller, Bellefeuille said, “They told me to stay in place and move away from Sgt. Mueller … If they had said they needed help, I would have helped.”
The Crown seized on Bellefeuille’s use of “brother” to cast doubt on whether he was truly in shock.
During his arrest, he was recorded saying, “Shoot me, brother. Shoot me.” On the stand, Bellefeuille told the jury it was said in the moment he realized he had possibly killed a police officer.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/bellefeu ... -testimony
Alain Bellefeuille told the court Wednesday that his rifle may have landed on the chest of Sgt. Eric Mueller as the Ontario Provincial Police officer lay critically wounded. He also acknowledged removing the officer’s body-worn camera and throwing it over a neighbour’s fence.
In the aftermath of the deadly shooting, Mueller lay bleeding heavily on the floor of Bellefeuille’s home in Bourget, Ont. The accused said he placed his firearm near Mueller so responding police would see it right away, but testified that it “may have ended up on him” and that it was “a possibility” the weapon fell across the chest of the dying man.
Crown prosecutor François Dulude asked whether the gun could have landed diagonally across Mueller’s body. “I don’t know,” Bellefeuille said in French.
“You were trying to make it seem like it was his firearm?” Dulude asked. “No,” said Bellefeuille, who maintained he was acting in shock, not malice.
The exchange came during the third and final day of cross-examination, as Bellefeuille continued to describe himself as overwhelmed in the moments after the fatal wellness check on May 11, 2023.
Bellefeuille testified that before paramedics arrived, he tried to disarm Mueller, whose gun was holstered, and removed the officer’s body-worn camera, which he kept in his pocket as first responders approached.
Dulude suggested Bellefeuille was trying to make it appear as though Mueller had drawn his weapon. “That’s not what I was doing,” Bellefeuille said.
The Crown played footage of Bellefeuille pacing on the porch while holding the body camera. “I had a million thoughts in my head,” Bellefeuille said, repeating a phrase he has used repeatedly on the stand to explain gaps in memory, delayed decisions and moments of apparent inaction.
“Among those million thoughts,” Dulude asked, “wasn’t there one about the body camera in your pocket?” The Crown suggested Bellefeuille knowingly kept the device on him until he could discard it.
“No,” Bellefeuille replied.
Earlier in the recording, Bellefeuille is heard telling paramedics, “I’m going to get my dog.” But Dulude pointed out that, once inside, Bellefeuille never called the dog’s name and used the opportunity to throw the camera over a neighbour’s fence.
“You weren’t looking after your dog. You were looking after yourself,” Dulude said.
The prosecutor suggested Bellefeuille had been aware paramedics were arriving and was already thinking about concealing evidence. “You weren’t happy to see them because you had more to hide, right?” he asked. Dulude also implied Bellefeuille was scoping out the situation before re-entering the house. “You asked the paramedics if there were any police around, because you knew exactly what you were going to do,” Dulude said.
“I didn’t want it on me,” Bellefeuille said, referring to the camera.
When asked why, he said, “I don’t know.”
As for why he didn’t help paramedics or tend to Mueller, Bellefeuille said, “They told me to stay in place and move away from Sgt. Mueller … If they had said they needed help, I would have helped.”
The Crown seized on Bellefeuille’s use of “brother” to cast doubt on whether he was truly in shock.
During his arrest, he was recorded saying, “Shoot me, brother. Shoot me.” On the stand, Bellefeuille told the jury it was said in the moment he realized he had possibly killed a police officer.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/bellefeu ... -testimony
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Michael Jack
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Defence wraps at murder trial of man accused of killing OPP officer
Closing arguments will continue in the trial of a man accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer and injuring two others during a 2023 wellness check at his home in Bourget, Ont., east of Ottawa.
Alain Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the bilingual Superior Court trial that began in March.
On Tuesday, jurors heard final submissions from Bellefeuille's defence lawyer. The Crown is expected to deliver its closing remarks on Wednesday, and the jury could begin deliberating as early as Thursday.
The court has heard that Bellefeuille fired the shots that killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured constables Mark Lauzon and Francois Gamache in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023.
At issue throughout the trial has been whether Bellefeuille knew the people entering his home were police officers, and what his intentions were when he fired multiple volleys from his rifle.
Defence attacks Crown case
During the trial, Bellefeuille testified he'd been asleep and was awoken by his barking dog, flashing lights and loud banging outside his rented rural home. He said he believed someone was trying to break in.
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.
Russomanno argued Bellefeuille did not have the "luxury of time" nor "clarity" to fully process what was happening, and that he was overwhelmed by "fear and confusion."
The jury has heard and seen body-worn camera footage taken from the responding officers. Testimony was also provided by paramedics and a neighbour who had called police with concerns about Bellefeuille's well-being.
Accused testified in his own defence
During his four days on the witness stand, Bellefeuille repeatedly told court he didn't know the people entering his home were police officers.
Testifying in French, he admitted to playing loud music and slamming doors on the night of the incident, explaining he was angry about his imminent eviction by his landlord.
He denied the Crown's suggestion that he was in a "murderous rage" that night, and during closing arguments Russomanno said Bellefeuille had "no beef with the police."
Crown prosecutors challenged Bellefeuille's credibility, accusing him of illegally modifying his rifle to hold more rounds, and attempting to hide evidence by placing a spent magazine in a cooler in his hunting room, tossing a police-worn body camera into his backyard and placing his own weapon on Mueller's body.
Bellefeuille denied making any attempt to mislead investigators, telling court he placed the magazine in the cooler out of habit, and placed his weapon on the officer's body to demonstrate that he was unarmed.
Defence casts doubt on accusations
The defence also cast doubt on parts of Lauzon's testimony, including whether he drove around the property before entering the home.
Russomanno told the jury the Crown's theory — that Bellefeuille was lying in wait for police — lacked common sense.
He said his client's behaviour immediately after the shooting, including disarming himself and calling 911, did not match the prosecution's narrative.
Jurors were asked to focus on whether Bellefeuille's belief that his home was being invaded was reasonable, and whether the Crown had proven intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday in L'Orignal with the Crown delivering its closing remarks.
The judge is likely to instruct jurors on Thursday before they begin their deliberations.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/d ... -1.7539466
Alain Bellefeuille has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the bilingual Superior Court trial that began in March.
On Tuesday, jurors heard final submissions from Bellefeuille's defence lawyer. The Crown is expected to deliver its closing remarks on Wednesday, and the jury could begin deliberating as early as Thursday.
The court has heard that Bellefeuille fired the shots that killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured constables Mark Lauzon and Francois Gamache in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023.
At issue throughout the trial has been whether Bellefeuille knew the people entering his home were police officers, and what his intentions were when he fired multiple volleys from his rifle.
Defence attacks Crown case
During the trial, Bellefeuille testified he'd been asleep and was awoken by his barking dog, flashing lights and loud banging outside his rented rural home. He said he believed someone was trying to break in.
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.
Russomanno argued Bellefeuille did not have the "luxury of time" nor "clarity" to fully process what was happening, and that he was overwhelmed by "fear and confusion."
The jury has heard and seen body-worn camera footage taken from the responding officers. Testimony was also provided by paramedics and a neighbour who had called police with concerns about Bellefeuille's well-being.
Accused testified in his own defence
During his four days on the witness stand, Bellefeuille repeatedly told court he didn't know the people entering his home were police officers.
Testifying in French, he admitted to playing loud music and slamming doors on the night of the incident, explaining he was angry about his imminent eviction by his landlord.
He denied the Crown's suggestion that he was in a "murderous rage" that night, and during closing arguments Russomanno said Bellefeuille had "no beef with the police."
Crown prosecutors challenged Bellefeuille's credibility, accusing him of illegally modifying his rifle to hold more rounds, and attempting to hide evidence by placing a spent magazine in a cooler in his hunting room, tossing a police-worn body camera into his backyard and placing his own weapon on Mueller's body.
Bellefeuille denied making any attempt to mislead investigators, telling court he placed the magazine in the cooler out of habit, and placed his weapon on the officer's body to demonstrate that he was unarmed.
Defence casts doubt on accusations
The defence also cast doubt on parts of Lauzon's testimony, including whether he drove around the property before entering the home.
Russomanno told the jury the Crown's theory — that Bellefeuille was lying in wait for police — lacked common sense.
He said his client's behaviour immediately after the shooting, including disarming himself and calling 911, did not match the prosecution's narrative.
Jurors were asked to focus on whether Bellefeuille's belief that his home was being invaded was reasonable, and whether the Crown had proven intent beyond a reasonable doubt.
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday in L'Orignal with the Crown delivering its closing remarks.
The judge is likely to instruct jurors on Thursday before they begin their deliberations.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/d ... -1.7539466
Michael Jack, Administrator