'Bang! Bang! Bang!': Witnesses recount confusion, gunshots during Belleville synagogue shooting

Norman Weddum recalled the sound of bullets hitting the stained glass at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont., on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community.

Weddum, who has been the synagogue’s president for the past eight years, attended the Sunday-night service with around 25 congregants.

When he first arrived, he said he spoke briefly to the police officer who was stationed in front of the building. He said he thanked him for being there. “We (request an officer) when we have a lot of people in the building, just for safety concerns,” he told National Post.

The choice to proactively have an officer at Sons of Jacob comes after several targeted shootings at synagogues across Canada. One person at the scene, a security guard, told Belleville publication The Intelligencer that he believed it was that officer who intercepted the suspect.

By the time Weddum walked into the building, it was 6:45 p.m.

Congregants were ushered into the inner sanctuary of the synagogue around 7 p.m. for the prayer service to start.

“At that point, that’s when the first, ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ started, and we all kind of stopped in our tracks,” he said.

And then another round of shots.

A handful of congregants, including Weddum, went out into the main lobby to see what had occurred. Again, they heard the same noise. “And this time it was so loud and deafening … that there was no question that was shot being fired.”

They ran back into the area where the service was being held and shut the doors.

“I yelled for everyone to get on the floor, to crouch right down,” said Weddum. The shots were still being fired and they could hear it hitting the stained glass windows that decorated the outer part of the synagogue.

The shooting stopped eventually, after what felt like hours. “We waited and waited,” said Weddum.

He could see a heavy police presence outside.

“There were two officers who were tending to an injured officer that was sitting on the ground,” he said.

While Weddum said he never expected such an incident to occur in Belleville, another congregant and Belleville resident Doug Lobel told National Post he “almost predicted this was going to happen.”

Lobel was also at the synagogue on Sunday night, with his wife, Eva.

He was walking into the service when he heard loud noises. He said it was confusing because they heard “a lot of shots” but had no idea what was going on outside.

“Sitting there, we hear, ‘Pop! Pop! Pop!’ We don’t know if there’s only one shooter. For me the biggest concern was … are they going to get into the building?”

He said when the shooting stopped, police entered to do a sweep of the building. Congregants were taken by bus to the police station and then dropped off at home.

Lobel said he felt like an incident like this could happen because of past events held in Belleville where the hosts used antisemitic rhetoric. He expressed concern to Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis in an email.

“(The mayor’s) response was really tone deaf because he said if you don’t feel safe contact the Belleville police,” said Lobel.

In a statement to National Post, Ellis said that he could not comment on the details of an individual interaction, but the “concerns about safety and antisemitism are taken seriously.”

“The safety and security of everyone in our community is our highest priority,” the mayor’s statement continued. “The Belleville Police Service is responsible for public safety and for responding to incidents such as this, and I have the utmost confidence in their professionalism and their ability to keep our community safe.”

Lobel said he is especially grateful for the officer who was stationed in front of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue. He’s not sure what would have happened if he wasn’t there.

The synagogue remains closed today to the roughly 100 families who are members, Weddum said.