Murder charges have been filed against two people who were arrested after an on-duty OPP officer was fatally shot on Tuesday.
Court documents show 25-year-old Randall McKenzie and 30-year-old Brandi Crystal Lyn Stewart-Sperry are both facing one count of first-degree murder.
Police say Constable Grzegorz Pierzchala was killed Tuesday afternoon while responding to a report of a vehicle in a ditch just west of Hagersville, Ont.
Pierzchala had worked for the Ontario Provincial Police for just over a year, Commissioner Thomas Carrique said. Just before his death, he had been informed that he had passed his 10 month probationary period.
Mr Pierzchala was previously a special constable at Queen’s Park who as a child dreamed of joining the ranks of the police, the commissioner said.
Haldimand County Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley visited the scene Wednesday with other members of the community to pay their respects to the 28-year-old police officer.
“It’s heartbreaking, disturbing, very upsetting for our community,” she said. These things just don’t happen in Haldimand County. »
Provincial police had issued an emergency alert just before 6 p.m., hours after the reported shooting around 2:30 p.m., advising everyone in the area not to go out.
The alert was canceled shortly after when the suspects were arrested.