'They are both heroes’: Belleville police confirm officers stopped 'hate-motivated' attack on synagogue

The heroism of two Belleville police officers prevented a deliberate, hate-motivated attack on the city’s Jewish community from becoming a mass-casualty event after one of them was shot multiple times and continued confronting the gunman, police said Thursday.

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd revealed new details about the Sept. 20 shooting outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue during a press conference at police headquarters on Thursday, Sept. 24, including the first public identification of the second officer who ran into the gunfight.

Const. Jeff Smith suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his head and body but, despite wha Rodd described as life-threatening injuries, got out of his police vehicle and continued engaging the armed attacker.

Approximately two minutes and 47 seconds into the exchange of gunfire, Const. Mike McCurdy arrived at the scene.

“Without hesitation, Const. McCurdy joined the active gunfight, helping to bring the violent attack to an end,” Rodd said.

“Together, Constables Smith and McCurdy confronted the active attacker and prevented what would have become an unimaginable tragedy.”

“They are both heroes,” Rodd said. “They are both heroes.”

The significance of their actions, Rodd said, has become clearer as investigators have pieced together what happened outside the synagogue, where members of Belleville’s Jewish community had gathered during one of the holiest observances of the year.

Belleville Police have now formally classified the shooting as a hate-motivated crime and say the events meet provincial policing definitions of both an “extreme incident” and an “active attacker.”

“This was a deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community during one of the holiest observances of the year,” Rodd said.

Police also played a short video of the confrontation for reporters Thursday.

Although the audio is difficult to hear, Rodd said investigators, outside agencies, and the Special Investigations Unit reviewed the recording. Police say the gunman can be heard yelling at Smith, “You are going to die for the Jews.”

“Make no mistake,” Rodd said. “This was a targeted attack against the Jewish community.”

Investigators now say the gunman had significant ammunition and other resources available to him, while gasoline was found in his vehicle.

Rodd said he had “the means, the motive and the mechanisms” to cause mass casualties.

“The only thing that stopped entry into the synagogue to execute the intent were the two officers,” he told reporters.

No one gathered inside the synagogue was injured.

Smith was ‘ambushed’

Thursday’s briefing provided the clearest account yet of what police believe happened immediately before the attack.

Rodd said investigators have determined the gunman made what police now consider a reconnaissance pass before returning to the synagogue.

“We know that there was a reconnaissance in the presence of our officer,” he said.

Nothing about the first pass gave Smith reason to believe an attack was imminent.

“He was then ambushed on the second pass,” Rodd said. “That’s when the shootings start.”

Smith had been stationed outside Sons of Jacob as part of his regular on-duty responsibilities.

Rodd said Belleville Police have for years maintained a relationship with the Jewish community that includes proactively assigning on-duty officers during significant religious observances and periods of heightened concern.

The chief emphasized this. “We have had for an extended period of time, and prior to my arrival here in 2024, a relationship with the Jewish community that involved our proactive pre-positioning of on-duty staff,” Rodd said.

Police had no specific intelligence warning them that Sunday’s attack was coming, he said.

Within moments of encountering the armed man, Smith was hit by gunfire.

But he remained in the fight.

Rodd said Smith exited his vehicle despite suffering life-threatening injuries and continued engaging the attacker until McCurdy arrived.

Smith suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including significant head trauma, and is expected to undergo a number of surgeries.

“He was shot multiple times and stayed engaged,” Rodd said.

Smith continues to make progress in hospital, but Rodd said the officer faces a long and difficult recovery.

McCurdy was not injured.

Police say attacker had capacity to do far more harm

Investigators also disclosed Thursday that the shotgun used during the attack was not the only resource available to the gunman.

Asked whether other weapons were found, Rodd said the attacker had significant ammunition on his person and additional resources available to him.

Police would not identify all of those items while the investigation remains underway.

Rodd also confirmed police found gasoline in the vehicle.

“There were things that you’d likely seen or heard that would be combustible,” he said.

Police are still trying to determine what damage the vehicle’s contents could have caused and did not say explosives were present.

Rodd said, however, that what investigators have uncovered supports their conclusion that the attacker could have carried out a much larger attack.

Kerzner went further in describing the tragedy he believed police prevented.

“A horrible catastrophe in the making almost was fulfilled right here,” he said. “A beautiful synagogue on a beautiful evening at Victoria and Bleecker, and thanks to the incredible work of our police service here and specifically Constable Smith and Constable McCurdy, it did not happen.”

“But it could have,” Kerzner continued, “not only the synagogue and everybody in it, but the entire city block could have been gone.”

Police have also obtained documentary and video evidence they say corroborates the finding that the Jewish community was deliberately targeted.

Asked whether investigators had located a manifesto or what searches of the attacker’s home, vehicle, phone and computers had revealed, Rodd said electronic devices are still being examined.

He declined to provide details about the documentary evidence while the investigation continues.

Police said they currently have no information linking the gunman to white supremacist or neo-Nazi organizations.

The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team is among the agencies involved, although Belleville Police remain the lead investigative service.

Police services rallied around Belleville

The scale of the police response was evident inside Belleville Police headquarters Thursday.

Senior officers and chiefs from police services across the region attended the briefing alongside provincial officials and Jewish community representatives.

Among them was Kingston Police Chief Adam MacIntosh.

Speaking with Kingstonist after the formal remarks, MacIntosh said Kingston officers are not directly involved in the criminal investigation but have been supporting their Belleville counterparts since shortly after the shooting.

“I learned of it very early on Sunday night,” MacIntosh said. “My first phone call was to Chief Rodd: ‘How can we help you? What do you need?’”

MacIntosh said Kingston Police have continued to provide support and will remain available as long as Belleville needs assistance. Several Kingston Police officers were on scene Monday while the SIU investigated.

“We will be there until they don’t need us anymore,” he said.

Asked whether the attack had prompted concern about a similar occurrence in Kingston, MacIntosh said Kingston Police have long provided extra resources around the city’s synagogue and elsewhere in support of the Jewish community.

Those efforts continue.

“We’re very alive to the things that are occurring across the country, in particular in the Toronto area, with shootings at synagogues,” he said.

MacIntosh said police services continually exchange intelligence and would respond if information emerged identifying a particular local threat.

“If we’re aware of a threat beyond what you know just being there, we would react to it,” he said.

‘A line of decency has been crossed’

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who also attended the press conference, described the attack as a moment that should concern people well beyond the Jewish community and Canada-wide.

“A line of decency has been crossed in our province,” Kerzner said.

“A line of decency has been crossed; having an individual act in such a hateful and antisemitic attack is unacceptable.”

Kerzner had visited Sons of Jacob shortly before the press conference.

As he was leaving, he said, leaders from a nearby mosque arrived with a bouquet of flowers.

“They did not know how to express their words of sorrow,” Kerzner said. “But they wanted to express their words of solidarity.”

He thanked Belleville’s Muslim community for the gesture.

“It was overwhelming,” he said.

Rodd said investigators have no information indicating the attack threatened other communities.

“This was an exclusive threat to our Jewish community,” he said. “There’s no indication there’s a threat to any other population or signature community.”

For police, however, Thursday’s briefing also underscored how differently Sunday night might have ended had Smith not been there, and McCurdy shortly thereafter.

People had gathered inside the synagogue for Yom Kippur observances. Outside, police now say, an armed attacker had the ammunition and other materials necessary to inflict far greater harm.

Smith was shot repeatedly but continued fighting.

McCurdy arrived and moved toward an active gunfight.

And the attacker never made it inside.

“The loss of life and irreversible damage that could have rippled through our community for generations,” Rodd said, “could not be overstated.”

By Michelle Dorey Forestell, LJI Reporter, The Kingstonist