Just 72.51 miles separate Watertown, New York, from Belleville, Ontario.
By Hans Wilder | Watertown Post
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Just 72.51 miles from Watertown as the goose flies, a man armed with a shotgun allegedly opened fire on a police officer stationed outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, Sunday evening as members of the Jewish community gathered for Yom Kippur.
For Northern New Yorkers, Belleville is not some distant Canadian city appearing in an international news report. It is practically in our backyard, directly across the international border and Lake America from the region we call home.
According to Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the confrontation began at approximately 7 p.m. September 20 near the synagogue at Victoria and Bleecker avenues. Investigators say a 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun exchanged gunfire with Belleville police. Both the man and an officer were shot. The officer was hospitalized in critical but stable condition, while the alleged gunman suffered life-threatening injuries.
Belleville police subsequently identified the alleged shooter as Sean Ward, 29, of Quinte West, and the wounded officer as Constable Jeff Smith, a nearly 13-year veteran of the department. Authorities said Ward opened fire on Smith, Smith returned fire, and another arriving officer also discharged his weapon. Investigators estimated that between 20 and 30 shots were fired.
About two dozen Jewish worshippers were inside the synagogue. None was injured. Witness Douglas Lobel described the gunfire as lasting two or three minutes and said the police officer protecting the building may have prevented something considerably worse. The synagogue canceled its remaining Yom Kippur services after the shooting.
The timing could hardly have been more disturbing. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Authorities have not yet officially determined the motive or classified the shooting as terrorism or a hate crime. Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis said it was too early to make that determination, while noting that where and when the attack occurred pointed investigators toward that possibility. Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, went further and publicly described the shooting as a terror attack.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the shooting and said Jewish Canadians must be able to worship safely. Police also increased security around houses of worship, although Belleville authorities said there was no continuing threat to the general public.
This Is Northern New York’s Neighborhood
That is the part of this story Northern New Yorkers should not overlook.
An international border on a map can create the illusion of enormous separation. Geography tells a different story. Watertown sits immediately south of the heavily populated southern Canadian corridor running through Toronto and eastward toward Montreal. Belleville sits directly in that broader corridor.
What happens on the Canadian side of the border therefore deserves considerably more attention in Northern New York than events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away.
The shooting also comes amid broader Canadian concern about antisemitic violence. Carney himself warned earlier this year about rising antisemitism and cited shootings at Jewish schools, attacks on synagogues, community centers and Jewish-owned businesses.
For Northern New York, the legitimate policy questions are therefore larger than one horrific evening in Belleville. They include border enforcement, intelligence sharing, organized crime, illegal firearms, smuggling and the ability of American and Canadian authorities to identify threats before they move across one of the world’s longest international borders.
Those questions are particularly relevant here because Northern New York does not sit on Canada’s distant periphery. We live beside its largest population corridor.
There will undoubtedly be political arguments about what closer North American integration should ultimately look like, including the Watertown Post’s continuing discussion of a possible future political union between the United States and Canada. Whatever one’s position on that larger question, Sunday’s shooting provides another reminder that security north of the border and security in Northern New York cannot realistically be treated as completely separate matters.
A shotgun was fired outside a synagogue during Yom Kippur.
A police officer was seriously wounded.
Twenty or more worshippers were sheltering inside.
And it happened 72.51 miles from Watertown, New York.
That isn’t somebody else’s neighborhood.
It’s ours.
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