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The two Niagara police officers who were shot inside an apartment building in Fenwick last night have been released from hospital. The alleged gunman is still in hospital after he suffered a head wound.
People who live at the Canboro Gardens building are wondering how this could have happened. A friend of the alleged gunman says it was about 6 months ago, Cory Richardson’s life began to spiral down a dark path.
“He got in with some bad people and he got in to some drugs and he started drinking a lot.”
29 year old Cory Richardson is the man friends say got into a gun fight with the 2 officers at 8pm Saturday night.
“I honestly believe he wanted the cops to shoot him and I guess when they wouldn’t, he shot at them. I think he wanted to die and didn’t have the heart to do it himself.”
Sue, a woman who lives in this building and is friends with Richardson says he recently lost his job, his girlfriend and he was behind in rent. She says Richardson was a gun collector but didn’t think he’d ever hurt anyone.
‘He was kind hearted. He would bend over backwards to help anybody he loved to laugh and joke. He just bought himself a new car. He was a good guy, he was a really good guy and my heart goes out to his mom and dad.”
But when Niagara police responded to a suicide call at the Canboro residence there was an exchange of gunfire.
“The man also indicated that he would commit other criminal offences that I can not identify at the moment because witnesses are being interviewed.” explained SIU Investigator Jon Ansell.
Constable Neal Ridley, an 8 year long member of the service and Constable Jake Braun, a 5 year long member, were both shot. Braun was shot in the foot and Ridley in the upper body. Both are at home recovering. Neighbours, like Tom Burger, are praising police for the quick evacuation of the building and keeping the public safe.
“I’m not so scared. I have all the faith in the world the police have done the right thing.”
Because this is now being probed by the special investigations unit, police are not allowed to speak about the incident and were unable to give us an update on the condition of the alleged gunman.
