Context: What is the history of multiple homicides in the Ottawa area

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The mass killing at a Berrigan Drive home in Barrhaven on Wednesday, March 6, appears to have exacted an unprecedented, unmatched death toll for such incidents in Ottawa’s recent history.

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Below is a list of incidents in which at least two people were killed, by gunfire or otherwise, in the Ottawa area over the past six decades.

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Sept. 2, 2023:

A brazen shooting at a wedding at the Infinity Convention Centre in Ottawa’s south end left two men dead and six others injured. The victims were identified as Toronto-area men: Said Mohamed Ali, 26; and Abdishakur Abdi-Dahir, 29. Six other men ranging in age from 22 to 35 were injured. Police said 50 rounds of ammunition were discharged into a crowd and that the shooting was targeted, although those who were injured or killed were not the targets. Police have declined to say whether there were multiple shooters or whether shots were fired from a vehicle. No arrests have been made.

June 27, 2022:

Anne-Marie Ready, a 50-year-old trade commissioner at Global Affairs Canada, and her 15-year-old daughter Jasmine, were killed in an attack outside their Alta Vista home. Police shot dead their killer, 21-year-old Joshua Graves, while he was attacking Jasmine’s 19-year-old daughter, Catherine. The incident happened three days after Graves, a neighbour of the Readys, was released following his arrest on charges of criminal harassment, assault and sexual assault.

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May 28, 2021:

After being called about multiple gunshots, Police arrived at a small strip mall at Alta Vista Drive and Dale Avenue and found two brothers Abdulaziz Abdullah, 34, and Mohamad Abdullah, 27, both from Ottawa, fatally shot. A third man at the scene was also shot, but his injuries were not life-threatening. In 2022, three men were arrested and charged in connection with the gang-related killings.

Dec. 16 2016:

Musab A-Noor, 29, fatally stabbed his two sisters, Asma A-Noor, 32, and Nasiba A-Noor, 29, in their McCarthy Road home. Accused of first- and second-degree murder, he pleaded not guilty by reason of a mental disorder. He was found to suffer from schizophrenia and a forensic psychiatrist told the court in 2017 that the accused was at times catatonic and sometimes laughed inappropriately during assessments. The  forensic psychiatrist told court that it appeared the accused was hallucinating, and that his mind was in a “great state of disorganization.” A-Noor was found not criminally responsible in November 2018.

Nov. 20, 2016:

Former Ottawa Citizen reporter Dave Rogers and his wife, Merrill Gleddie, were slain by their adopted son, Cameron, then 22, who fatally stabbed them. At his trial in December 2018, the son pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

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Sept. 22, 2015:

In the area around Wilno, a small town about 180 kilometres west of Ottawa, Basil Borutski killed three women in separate but related incidents, fatally strangling Carol Culleton and fatally shooting Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam. At his 2017 trial, Borutski was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder and sentenced to consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole for 70 years.

Oct. 26, 2011:

In what police said appeared to be a professional hit, convicted drug traffickers Graham Thomas and Jason Chapman were gunned down inside a tanning salon at the Gloucester Centre. Police later recovered $15 million in synthetic drugs connected to the killings. No arrests have been made.

June 30, 2007:

Retired tax court judge Alban Garon, 77, his wife, Raymonde Garon, 70, and another woman were discovered bound, gagged and beaten to death inside the Garons’ Riverside Drive condominium. In a 2017 trial, Ian Bush was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder.

Nov. 22, 2002:

Bob and Bonnie Dagenais, popular and retired Ottawa teachers, were gunned down at close range at a lakeside cottage in Val-Des-Monts, some 40 kilometres north of Ottawa. Career criminal René Michaud and a young offender were found guilty of murdering the couple.

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Apr. 6, 1999:

Pierre Lebrun, a former OC Transpo employee, entered the bus company’s St. Laurent Boulevard headquarters and killed four former co-workers and injured two others with a hunting rifle before taking his own life.

Nov. 29, 1997:

The terribly beaten bodies of Rose Bannerman and Neil Nadeau were found in a Vanier basement apartment. They had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer in what was considered a drug rip-off gone horribly wrong. Marc Landriault was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and Lee Baptiste was found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.

Oct. 27, 1975:

In what was Canada’s second recorded school shooting. The gunman, Robert Poulin, an 18-year-old student at St. Pius X High School, opened fire on classmates with a shotgun, killing Mark Hough, 17, and wounding five others before killing himself. Earlier that day, Poulin lured Kim Rabot, 17-year-old neighbour to his family’s home before he raped her and fatally stabbed her to death.

Dec, 22, 1963:

On the final Sunday before Christmas, four people — two men and two women — died inside the rectory of Christ the King Church on Argyle Street in Centretown. Two gunmen, brothers Réginald and Roger Binette, went into the rectory in an apparent attempt to rob the church of its Sunday collection and, possibly, to take hostages. They killed two women living in the rectory, and shot a man who stormed the rectory in an attempt to come to their aid. Roger Binette then shot himself. Réginald Binette, 18, was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in time to get married and have children. He died in North York General Hospital on April 5, 2003, at the age of 57.

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