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.
