Sault Ste. Marie shooter was previously charged with assaulting cop, court docs show

The man who killed four people – including three of his own children – before turning a gun on himself in Sault Ste. Marie had been charged four years ago with assaulting a police officer, court records show. 

Family have identified the gunman behind this week’s shooting rampage in the northern Ontario city as Bobbie Hallaert. 

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show Hallaert was charged in December 2019 with assaulting a police officer in Sault Ste. Marie. 

The documents show he received a conditional discharge and was ordered for 12 months to keep the peace, not posses any weapons and participate in alcohol abuse counselling, among other conditions. 

Hallaert’s uncle identified his nephew as the shooter and said the family is struggling to understand what happened on Monday night, when Hallaert gunned down multiple victims – his own children among them – before taking his own life. 

“It’s just tragic, I hope he rots in hell,” Dirk Hallaert told The Canadian Press in an interview. 

Police have called the shootings a case of intimate partner violence and have not released the identities of those involved. 

They have said the shooter first broke into a home on Monday night and killed a 41-year-old woman before heading to a second home and killing three children – aged six, seven and 12 – and shooting another woman, aged 45, who survived.   

The 44-year-old shooter was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Family identified the 41-year-old woman killed at the first home as Angie Sweeney. 

Her father, Brian Sweeney, wrote several posts on Facebook expressing his grief and mourning the loss of his “baby girl.”

“I will forever keep you in what is left of this MANs Heart,” he wrote in one post. 

In another post, he asked friends to share photographs of his daughter. “She LOVED LIFE and knew how to LIVE it,” he wrote. 

Ginger Gamble, who lives across the street from Angie Sweeney’s home, said the woman was a “beautiful person.” She also said Sweeney had called Bobbie Hallaert her partner.  

Gamble said she spoke with Sweeney in late September and the woman talked at that time of Halleart’s bad temper. Gamble said she spoke to Hallaert herself once and found him “kind of scary.” 

“He had a presence about him that you feel with your gut,” she said. 

Two small bouquets of pink carnations had been put up on a utility pole outside the home where Sweeney was shot. Yellow police tape remained up outside the house on Thursday and several police cars were seen outside. 

A larger police presence, including a forensics van, was seen outside the home where the three children were killed. A small bouquet of flowers had been placed amid the yellow police tape outside the bungalow. 

Sault Ste. Marie Police Chief Hugh Stevenson has said police got a domestic violence call from one of the two homes involved in the gunman’s rampage a day before the shootings took place.    

Stevenson has not released further details but has said the shooter was involved in intimate partner investigations in the past. 

Officers found two guns – a long gun and a handgun – at the home where the three children were found dead, police said. 

The shootings have devastated the city of about 73,000, with residents expressing shock and horror at the violence. 

A spokeswoman for Algoma Steel, a large employer in the area, would not confirm if Hallaert worked at the local steel plant but said counselling support was being provided to employees and their families. 

“On behalf of Algoma Steel, we extend our condolences to those impacted by Monday evening’s unfathomable violence and tragic loss,” Laura Devoni, the director of corporate affairs, wrote in a statement. 

“This is a very difficult time for all in the Soo. We have counselling support available for our employees and their families.”

Ross Romano, the provincial legislator for the area, said the community was dealing with an “unimaginable” tragedy. 

“There are no words to describe the incredible sense of sorrow and pain felt right now,” he wrote in a statement. 

“It is heart wrenching to process these incomprehensible acts of violence. As a community, we weep.” 

A community candlelight vigil was planned for Friday evening.