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Following a 24-hour standoff that held Welland, Ont., on edge, a man barricaded in a former church was taken into custody Saturday and faces charges including attempted murder after a police officer was shot.
Daniel Tronko, 59, was arrested just before 7:30 a.m. ET, Niagara regional police confirmed. He was transported to an out-of-region hospital following the standoff.
It all began around 8 a.m. Friday, when police officers showed up at the property with bylaw officials concerned about an infraction involving a fence.
In a news release and on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, the police service said residents are no longer being urged to remain indoors after a shelter-in-place was lifted.
“Every decision that was being made by our command officers had the safety of the public and officers first and foremost in mind,” Const. Richard Hingley of the Niagara Regional Police Service told a news conference.
Police had been negotiating with the man overnight. They deployed tactical operations throughout the negotiation in which they sent remote cameras into the former church-turned-residence. In all instances, police said, the remote cameras were fired upon by Tronko and disabled, “demonstrating a disregard for public and officer safety.”
The incident had led to a lockdown of schools in the area and a hold-and-secure at Welland Hospital that was lifted later Friday.
According to police, the man shot and wounded an officer after they had accompanied bylaw officials to the property to address a large fence blocking traffic sightlines.
The officer was taken to hospital and later released “with minor physical injuries.”
Police had prepared for a ‘long-term operation’
Around 7 p.m. Friday, Niagara police said on X, “If members of the public are questioning recent sounds heard in the area, police have initiated tactics and equipment to determine the wellbeing of the male inside the home.”
Hingley told CBC News in the late afternoon that police were preparing for a “long-term operation.”
“We understand it’s a strain in the community to have a shelter in place this long,” Hingley said, “but it is for their own safety and it does help us do our job better.”
Around 5 p.m., police said a shelter was established in a community centre at 145 Lincoln St. for those unable to return home as the standoff continued.
Addressing media earlier, Hingley said the incident appeared to begin over a fence dispute.
City of Welland bylaw officials had gone to the property as “an enormous fence” was blocking traffic sightlines, and bylaw had requested to be accompanied by police to “keep the peace,” he said earlier.
Grant Munday, Welland’s director of planning and development services, told CBC News in an email that the property owner had “put up a fence on a City Road allowance and was digging in the area where the city has water and sewer infrastructure, neither of which is permitted.”
The fence surrounds an old church converted into a residence, Hingley said. Shortly after officers arrived, a man inside shot at them.
Hamilton, Halton police also at the scene
Niagara police’s emergency task unit, and Hamilton and Halton police remained on the scene at Second Street between Plymouth Road and Lincoln Street on Friday afternoon, “working to make the area safe,” Hingley said.
No details about the officer who was shot have been released.
But speaking from Buffalo, N.Y., Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters he’d heard an officer was shot in Welland and said she is “a wonderful person.”
Ford said his “prayers and thoughts” are with her and her family, and police on both sides of the border.
“God bless her and pray everything’s going to work out. I’m very, very confident it will.”
Ontario’s SIU called in
Just after 11 a.m. Friday, Niagara police said officers had used their firearms “during the initial interaction” and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was notified.
The SIU confirmed it had invoked its mandate.
Hingley said Saturday he couldn’t detail the accused’s injuries as the SIU is involved and would be investigating.
The police watchdog investigates incidents involving police and civilians that have resulted in serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault.
Schools in lockdown included Plymouth Public School and St. Mary Catholic School, but police said at 2:24 p.m. that staff were evacuated from both schools.
