Neighbour saw, heard shootings of OPP officers

On day five of a trial for a man accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police officer and injuring two others, a jury heard from a neighbour who witnessed the deadly shootings. 

Alain Bellefeuille's trial for murder and two charges of attempted murder is being held in the small community of L'Orignal and is scheduled to last six weeks.

The now 41-year-old is expected to testify in his own defence about what happened the night nearly two years ago when Sgt. Eric Mueller was shot and killed while responding to a 911 call.

Bellefeuille is expected to argue he was asleep at home and feared intruders were breaking in at the time of the shootings. 

Crown prosecutors say Bellefeuille waited in silence as officers made a wellness check at his home, walking around the property and shouting his name in an attempt to coax a response from him.

Neighbour saw Bellefeuille shoot

On Tuesday, a neighbour whose wife made the initial call to authorities began testifying from the witness box.

André Cousineau said he has lived for twenty years in the quiet village of Bourget, Ont.

Bellefeuille had lived next door for about five years when, on May 11, 2023, Cousineau's wife awoke to what she thought was the sound of a gun shot. She called police and Cousineau said he watched Const. Marc Lauzon arrive at Bellefeuille's property.

He says Lauzon's patrol vehicle pulled into the property shining a bright spotlight and honking a police horn. Lauzon then came and spoke to Cousineau and his wife, who gave them a phone number for Bellefeuille.

Cousineau said nobody picked up when the officer called the number and the officer then returned to Bellefeuille's property.

He said he watched from inside his house as two more officers arrived on the scene.

"'They tried to get Alain's attention," he told the jury. "They called out his name a couple times, a few times, I'm not sure exactly."

Peeking through a window in their laundry room, Cousineau testified that he watched as the officers then entered Bellefeuille's house. 

He said he then heard "repetitive gun shots, fast" that to him sounded like, "one after the other, as fast as they could come out I'd guess."

Cousineau said he watched an officer retreat from the house. 

Another — Lauzon — collapsed on the lawn, moaning in pain. Lauzon was seriously injured but survived. 

Cousineau told court he saw Bellefeuille emerge from the house onto a balcony and fire several shorts in the direction of police vehicles. 

Mueller was killed during the shooting, and Cousineau testified to seeing paramedics remove his body from Bellefeuille's house on a stretcher. 

The defence is expected to begin its cross-examination of Cousineau Wednesday morning. 

Injured officer testified over four days

Earlier, during Lauzon's four days of testimony, Bellefeuille's defence cross-examined the officer, noting inconsistencies between his memory and notes from the time of the shooting. 

Lauzon told the court that police had used a loudspeaker to announce their presence at Bellefeuille's, but the defence noted that he never mentioned that detail when making a formal statement to detectives one month after Mueller died. 

He told the court in French it was an "oversight" not to have mentioned it earlier. No body camera footage available or seen in court shows the use of a loudspeaker. There was also a discrepancy regarding whether Lauzon circled the property in his vehicle when he first arrived.

Lauzon said he was "seriously injured" by the bullets that struck him in 2023, has subsequently undergone seven operations, and that that "memory can play tricks." 

He told court it was a "cell phone that saved my life". Items he had on him that night, including the phone and a notebook with a hole in it, were entered as evidence.