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Young couple preparing for their wedding are shot dead on their front lawn during argument with their landlord: Suspect barricaded himself in his home before being killed by cops
- Police were called to the Stoney Creek district of Hamilton, Ontario, at 5:40pm Saturday for reports of gunshots fired
- They found a 27-year-old woman and her 28-year-old fiancé dead on the lawn in front of the house: the pair had been running from their landlord
- Terry Bourassa, 57, had argued with the couple about the basement, where they lived: when police arrived he barricaded himself in, and was shot dead at 10pm
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A Canadian couple engaged to be married were shot dead by their landlord on the front lawn of their home, with the suspect then barricading himself in before being killed in a shootout with police.
Authorities were called to the house in the Stoney Creek district of Hamilton, Ontario, at 5:40pm on Saturday, amid reports of gunshots being found.
There, they found dead the 27-year-old woman, who worked as an educational assistant at a local Catholic school, and her 28-year-old electrician fiancé.
The pair, who have not been named, rented the basement of a home belonging to 57-year-old Terry Bourassa.
The couple got into a dispute with Bourassa, stemming from a ‘disagreement surrounding issues within the house,’ said Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk, of Hamilton Police’s Major Crime Unit.
The engaged couple lived in the basement of this house in Stoney Creek, Hamilton: their landlord Terry Bourassa lived above. He shot and killed the couple on Saturday in a dispute over the house, before barricading himself inside and being shot dead by police
They were running away from the house when they were shot and killed.
‘(They were) both hardworking people, adding to the tragedy of this event,’ he said.
Neither the couple nor Bourassa was known to police, Bereziuk confirmed, which makes what happened ‘a little bit more shocking.’
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Bereziuk added the murder of the young couple was deeply shocking.
‘As you can well imagine these are not people that this should happen to,’ he said.
‘They’re not involved in any level of criminality or lifestyle that may lead to an incident like this. They’re truly innocent.’
Bourassa then barricaded himself inside the home, with weapons that he legally held.
Bereziuk said the police spent ‘considerable time’ trying to negotiate a ‘peaceful resolution’ with Bourassa, but he opened fire on them at around 10pm and was shot dead.
Sandra Chaisson, a resident of more than four decades in the area of the incident, said the landlord bought the house on Jones Road from her grandparents.
Chaisson told CP24 News that Bourassa lived in the house for more than 20 years.
‘He was very quiet. A very quiet man. I didn’t see him much, just to wave hello, but I haven’t seen him for a long time,’ she said.
‘The tenants were in the basement, but I didn’t know them, just to see them at the mailbox kind of thing.’
Chaisson said she was watching TV around 10pm when she heard six to eight rapid shots fired.
‘It was rather scary,’ she said. ‘It’s a shock to all of us.’
