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Stratford police were called nearly a dozen times in the last year to intervene in complaints involving two homes on the same street before a simmering dispute between neighbours exploded into a deadly shooting rampage last week.
One man was killed and two people seriously injured last Thursday before the gunman – armed with a high-powered rifle, a shotgun and a handgun – fatally shot himself.
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Police were called “approximately” 11 times since last summer to Bradshaw Drive to deal with complaints from two residences involved in the longstanding conflict – one occupied by Ricky Bilcke, the shooter, and the other by Johnny Bennett and Stephanie Irvine, a high-ranking city police officer said.
Most of the calls were for noise and neighbour disputes, but things escalated late Aug. 1 when Bilcke fatally shot Bennett and wounded Irvine and David Tokley in the rampage before turning the gun on himself.
Stephanie Irvine, who survived the mass shooting but was hit by a shotgun blast that nearly severed her arm, said she was carrying her two-year-old daughter when she approached her shot boyfriend, Bennett, as he lay dying in the driveway of their home.
Tokley had surgery late last week to remove shrapnel from the right side of his skull after also being struck by a shotgun blast outside his home.
Bilcke used a high-powered rifle and a shotgun to kill and injure the victims, and also had a handgun on him, Stratford police Insp. Mark Taylor confirmed.
The shooter had no criminal record and the guns were registered, Taylor said.
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In the fallout of the shooting, some people are wondering whether the deadly violence could have been anticipated given the troubles on the street.
Taylor said the police force could re-examine some of its protocols in the wake of the shooting rampage.
“It’ll be an ongoing process for us and the community to figure out what went wrong and how we can do better,” he said. “There’s always things you can look at.”
Typically, Stratford police ask homeowners if they have firearms only when responding to urgent calls, such as those involving reported domestic violence. Under federal legislation passed late last year, police can temporarily confiscate guns from a home if they believe there’s imminent danger.
That’s not often the case when police respond to noise complaints or are trying to calm things down in a dispute, the kinds of calls that frequently come in across Stratford.
But last week’s shooting spree could change that, Taylor said.
“Now, we’re going to have to relook at that and start asking those questions to know we have flags on residences we don’t know about,” he said. “(Officers) are going to be more aware of their surroundings and what they’re getting themselves into.”
Doing so could potentially prevent another deadly violence spree such as the one last week.
“You go to a noise complaint and it would be weird to ask if they have firearms in the house,” Taylor said.
“Now, if we’re getting called to a residence on multiple occasions for small complaints, it’s something you look at.”
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