TORONTO (AP) — A former Canadian soldier who opened fire on a police officer outside an Ontario synagogue during Yom Kippur shouted “you’re going to die for the Jews” moments before shooting, police said Thursday, declaring the attack was motivated by hate.
Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd disclosed the alleged words of 29-year-old Sean Ward as police for the first time publicly identified a motive for Sunday’s attack outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue.
“Make no mistake, this was a targeted attack against the Jewish community,” Rodd said. “The suspect had the means, the motive and the mechanisms to cause a mass casualty.”
Police at a news conference Thursday played audio that they said captured Ward shouting the antisemitic threat before opening fire on Const. Jeff Smith, who was stationed outside the synagogue.
Rodd said Smith was shot before even getting out of his vehicle but still confronted the attacker, remaining engaged in the gunfight for nearly three minutes despite suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body. A second officer, Const. Michael McCurdy, arrived and joined the exchange of fire.
Rodd said the two officers were the only thing that prevented Ward from entering the synagogue and carrying out what police described as a potential mass killing. He said Ward had multiple weapons, a significant amount of ammunition and gasoline available to him.
About two dozen people were inside the synagogue marking the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. None was injured.
Ward was critically wounded and died the following day. Smith, a 13-year veteran of the Belleville Police Service, faces multiple surgeries and a lengthy recovery from gunshot wounds, fractures and shrapnel injuries, Rodd said.
The Department of National Defense has said Ward served as an infantry soldier with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry before leaving the Canadian Armed Forces in 2022 at the rank of corporal. He did not deploy during his service.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press indicate Ward had joined a lawsuit challenging the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, claiming financial losses after he refused vaccination on religious grounds and was released from service.
Investigators are also assessing materials found in Ward’s vehicle, including extra gasoline, to determine how much damage he may have intended to cause, Rodd said.
The province’s police watchdog previously said as many as 30 shots were fired and nearby vehicles and homes were struck.
Synagogue president Norman Weddum said Thursday he believed Ward had the means to kill those inside and possibly destroy the synagogue. He said the congregation plans to reopen soon.
The attack comes amid heightened concern about antisemitism in Canada.
Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, the province’s public safety minister, said the attack struck him personally as a Jewish Canadian. He praised the community’s response, noting that leaders from a nearby mosque brought flowers to the Sons of Jacob Synagogue to express sorrow and solidarity.
“We will never normalize antisemitism or hate of any kind,” Kerzner said.
Police officers walk in front of the Son of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario on Monday Sept. 21, 2026. (Ian MacAlpine/The Canadian Press via AP)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Residents along Mexico’s west coast stacked sandbags to fortify beachfront shops and evacuated their homes, while Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui braced for potentially catastrophic flooding, as two separate storms swirled in the Pacific on Thursday.
Heavy rains from powerful Hurricane Polo could cause life-threatening flooding and landslides in Mexico, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. In places like the port city of Lazaro Cardenas, seawater swept through homes Thursday and left wooden planks and furniture strewn on the streets.
Polo has gone back and forth between Category 4 and 5, both major-hurricane strength. The strongest winds were expected to remain offshore as the storm’s center skirts the coast before moving out to sea. But Polo was forecast to hook back toward Mexico’s coast farther north on Saturday.
Far off the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, Tropical Storm Nolo was gathering strength, and forecasters expect it to become a hurricane soon. Hawaii is likely to see heavy rains starting late Thursday and winds reaching hurricane levels by early Saturday. Nolo could dump more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of rain across islands still recovering from a string of storms.
The series of powerful storms comes as the weather phenomenon El Niño prompts major environmental shifts across the world, fueling drought in some areas and flooding in others. El Niño traditionally dampens the Atlantic hurricane season, while it tends to rev up tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific with moist air and little wind shear.
Hawaii has been battered this year by major flooding in the spring, an earthquake and two other hurricanes since mid-August.
“In my 20 years of experience here, I’ve never seen three hurricane watches for the islands in the same year,” said John Bravender of the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
Mexican authorities were opening shelters and clearing people from beaches, while coastal residents tried to protect businesses from getting swept away. People in high-risk areas were being evacuated, though authorities didn’t immediately say how many.
Much of the worry from locals comes from hurricanes in past years that devastated cities along the Pacific coast. Hurricane Otis in 2023 unexpectedly plunged Acapulco into turmoil for weeks.
“So many people said it wouldn’t happen and then it did. After that, you’re left on edge,” said Gonzalo Ramírez, a bartender in the city.
Polo posed the biggest threat to Guerrero and Michoacán, neighboring states in southwest Mexico that share a long coastline scattered with small ports, tourist towns and fishing villages. Much of the area is marked by poverty, and residents routinely complain they are left to fend for themselves during natural disasters.
Mexican authorities have deployed 15,000 security personnel across the coast and suspended schools.
In Lázaro Cárdenas, a port city in Michoacán that was hit with high surf, locals and government officials were clearing out piles of wooden planks from a number of destroyed ramadas and shoveling thick mud coating much of the town.
Alicia Contreras said the walls and roof of her restaurant had been severely damaged by 15-foot (4.5-meter) waves. As officers and family helped pick through the damaged house, Contreras worried how she would economically recover.
“This is huge because we have no other source of income. Now we’re just surviving,” Contreras said.
Forecasters said Tropical Storm Nolo might grow into a major hurricane and could drop 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain on the Big Island, with even higher amounts possible through Saturday.
The island of Maui could also be hit with life-threatening floods and mudslides, the hurricane center said.
While the Big Island is expected to bear the brunt of the storm, its full path remains uncertain, according to Bravender, the weather service's warning coordination meteorologist in Hawaii.
Most concerning, he said Thursday, is that the heaviest rain is likely to fall over the same southeastern region of the Big Island hit in August by Hurricane Lala and where grounds are still wet from additional precipitation.
“There are several communities that were isolated, flooded, roads that were washed out,” he said. “It’s that same area that is most under threat,” Bravender said.
Hawaii officials told residents to put together emergency kits and the governor issued an emergency proclamation, activating more than 230 Hawaii National Guard members. Schools were closed for the rest of the week.
Hawaiian Electric, the state’s primary utility, said crews that had been helping restore power in Kauai after this month’s Hurricane Lowell would return to Oahu, Maui and the Big Island in preparation for the coming storm.
A third storm in the Pacific, Hurricane Odalys, was centered far from land roughly 1,110 miles (1,785 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
In the northern Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Fay re-formed early Thursday, the U.S. hurricane center said. It was nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) west-southwest of the Azores.
Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Jeriel Vargas Ambriz in Lázaro Cárdena, Mexico, contributed.
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Nolo, left, south of Hawaii; Hurricane Odalys, middle, and Hurricane Polo, right, off the coast of Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo moving away from the southwestern coast of Mexico on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Nolo in the Pacific Ocean, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Odalys in the Pacific Ocean, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
This photo provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Polo strengthening in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
