‘NEIGHBOUR DISPUTE’ LEADS TO SHOOTING AND SELF-INFLICTED DEATH IN GRAVENURST LAST NIGHT

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — A man is dead after shooting himself following a “dispute” with his next door neighbour — in which she was shot in the arm with a “rifle” in their shared front yard early last night.

Detectives were on scene this morning after police received “several” 911 calls about multiple gunshots being fired Tuesday at 7 p.m., at 125 Lofty Pines Drive in Gravenhurst.

OPP Insp. Jason Nickle tells MuskokaTODAY.com “It was a neighbour dispute.”

And “the individual responsible was located deceased inside the residence.”

Neighbours say his name is Albert Sedore.

Nickle said when police were first called, “It came in as shots being fired in that area. On arrival our officers located an individual that had been shot. They assisted the members that were in the neighbouring units away from the scene in to a place of safety.

“Got the individual who was shot, got her some assistance through the paramedics. And she was transported to hospital,” with non-life-threatening injuries.

“At that time we then discovered that there was an individual believed to be in one of the residences with the firearm. We contained the scene until such time as the specialty units arrived from TRU and ERT. And upon their arrival they entered the residence a time later and discovered the male believed to have succumbed from a self-inflicted gun wound.”

The man was in his 50s, said Nickle, who didn’t know the age of the female victim.

“It was a neighbour dispute,” he said.

Lofty Pines Place is a District of Muskoka housing complex at the north end of Muskoka Road, located on southeast corner of Lofty Pines Drive across from the Mickle Cemetery and town mortuary.

Nickle said the incident began out on the front lawn outside the units 28 and 29, which have adjacent doors a foot apart and facing Lofty Pines.

“That’s correct,” said Nickle. “That’s where the initial altercation took place.”

He said the gun used was “a standard hunting rifle.”

And “I certainly don’t want this to spin in to something about a high-powered (weapon).

It wasn’t an assault rifle or anything like that.”

He said: “When we arrived on scene we had information that the subject was in the residence with a firearm. That’s the only information we had.”

Nickle added that the unidentified deceased man died “prior to police arrival.”

And he said: “We’re certainly not anticipating any charges as a result of the investigation. But the investigations folks will continue do a thorough history of this incident; and determine what potentially the cause of the factors may have been.”

Nickle said police arrived “on scene at approximately 7:10.”

And by the time officers entered the unit it was “approximately an hour-and-a-half after.

“We had some information the subject was deceased.”

Asked how many shots were fired, Nickle said he had “no confirmation of that number.”

“A minimum of three shots, I’ll say that much.”

This morning two OPP detectives, two uniform officers and a member of the provincial police criminal investigation unit were on the front lawn of the two units, which was still cordoned off with yellow “crime scene” tape that surrounded most of the street-facing building units.

One officer had a metal detector, while the others were all bent over looking for evidence.

One detective wearing blue plastic gloves and another officer with black gloves picked away a debris next to the curb.

Five short orange cones with numbers on them were placed on the ground — two of them were on the shared front doorstep and three were at the road’s curbside.

Meanwhile, six people who were family and friends of the dead man huddled farther back in amongst the dozens of other subsidized housing units, standing and sitting and talking with a victim services worker.

“Leave us alone,” said an older woman who said they “didn’t want to talk.

“We’re grieving.”

Other tenants were also traumatized by the shooting.

“It was pretty scary,” said neighbour Amanda Ash, whose unit backs on to the building where the shots were fired.

“It was like a scene out of a movie.”

Jessica Morrow said she “didn’t know a lot. I don’t really know what’s true and what’s not. We don’t know really a whole lot of information. We’re not 100 per cent sure.

“We just basically saw cops and SWAT,” said the mother of three who lives nearby with her husband.

“I was trying to get in touch with my neighbours across and behind me and be like ‘What’s happening?’

“I just looked outside and saw an ambulance and a cop car. I was like ‘Oh my goodness. What’s going on?’ And then all of a sudden the street was lined with cops surrounding the front area.

“It was pretty scary. Not to really know what’s going on.”

Morrow said “I know there was a lot of people outside, apparently, standing around, which wasn’t a smart idea. I don’t know, you go outside by the road?

“Because we were pretty scared. We don’t know whether we were being shot at, ’cause we were told to come out this way (at the back of the buildings) and the SWAT team was trying to get somebody and they were like ‘Get your hands up.’ And they were running around trying to get somebody. And they told us to back up. And then we had to go out that way, behind the trees.”

Ellie Valenzuela, 19, said her Nanna who was home called her at work at Muskoka Shores and asked her if she could come home quickly.

“I just told her to keep calm,” and she was able to “rush” home.

Valenzuela said they could see police outside their back window, which looks out onto the rear fenced-in yard of the two neighbours involved.

She said police came around and told neighbours to stay in their homes.

Everyone gave their names and police said they would contact them when it was safe, which they did.

Another neighbour a little farther away on Lofty Pine Drive, who wouldn’t give her name because she “didn’t want to be involved.”

“It’s best to leave it up to police.”

The  police investigation is ongoing with the assistance of the Muskoka Crime Unit and the OPP Forensic Identification Section (FIS) and anyone with information is asked to call Bracebridge OPP at 1-888-310-1122. You may also provide information anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.crimestopperssdm.com.

EMAIL: news@muskokatoday.com

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