Montreal Police confirmed at a news conference that a police officer, a citizen and the suspect are all dead following a shooting in the city. A second citizen was lightly injured in the incident, which the force said involved a long gun and ended with the suspect being neutralized.
Laying out the toll, police said one of their officers died, a citizen died, and the neutralized suspect also died. They added that a citizen had been lightly hurt. According to the force, a long gun was used in the attack, and the weapon was seized as officers brought the situation under control.
Police also walked through how the events unfolded over what they described as just an instant. At around 11:35 in the morning, a citizen near a Hilton hotel reported seeing a gun barrel come out of a window and hearing gunshots, prompting a call to police.
Officers responded to that call, and when they arrived they were shot at, leading to an exchange of fire. The shooting took place outside, at street level, before the suspect was brought down and the scene was secured by responding officers.
The death of the officer drew an emotional response from the force. A Montreal police commander said that today, one of us is dead, after the officer was killed carrying out the mission of protecting and serving. He offered his thoughts to the officer's family, to the police of the SPVM, and to officers across Quebec.
The confirmation followed earlier breaking reports of the shooting, when Montreal Police had said it was with immense sadness that they confirmed the death of one of their officers in the line of duty and that further details would follow. The news conference provided the fuller account of the toll and the timeline.
With the suspect dead, authorities continued to work through exactly what happened. Police laid out the chronology of the shooting but did not provide a motive, and the investigation into the incident remained ongoing as the force pieced together the events that left an officer and a citizen dead.