Cops stable after deadly stabbing incident

BARRIE, Ontario, July 6 (UPI) -- Police in Barrie, Ontario, say two officers are in stable condition after being stabbed by a man who was fatally shot by one of them.

Sun Media reported the city police officers had responded to a call about 10:30 a.m. Sunday near a shopping center.Within minutes, there was a second call that shots had been fired and people injured.

"I'm not sure exactly what the nature of the call was," Barrie Police Chief Wayne Frechette said. "Shortly thereafter, there was some sort of confrontation. We don't know exactly what led to it at this point, but it resulted in two of our people being stabbed seriously and the assailant being shot and killed."

Constable John Parliament, a police spokesman, told CTV News that while police "have to expect the worst sometimes ... here in Barrie I don't recall anything in recent history, anyway, anything like this."

The names of the officers and the man killed were not released.

Witnesses said the stabbing suspect was shot multiple times. Sun Media reported police appeared to be focused on two separate crime scenes involving two pickup trucks a few hundred feet apart. Witness accounts placed gunfire at both sites.

One witness said one of the injured officers shot the suspect after making numerous attempts to convince the man to drop his weapon.

"He was holding his neck while he was firing," the unidentified witness said.

The Special Investigations Unit for the province of Ontario was to handle the investigation into the incident.