This nomination is a team nomination for the Ottawa Police Homicide Unit, Forensic Identification Unit, and Frontline Platoon Unit members who arrested, investigated, and successfully prosecuted a horrendous homicide in Ottawa that took the lives of four children, their mother, and a family acquaintance in the Ottawa area.
The team members in the nomination are:
• Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Pilon- Homicide Unit
• Sergeant Chris O'Brien- Homicide Unit
• Sergeant Derek Wereley- Homicide Unit
• Constable Darren Trafford – Frontline Patrol
• Constable Riley Emmons -– Frontline Patrol
• Constable Michael Hardinge – Frontline Patrol
• Constable Victoria Powers– Frontline Patrol
• Constable Pierre White– Frontline Patrol
• Constable Mitchell Hopkins– Frontline Patrol
• Constable Sebastien Couture – Frontline Patrol
• Constable Paolo Crescenzi– Frontline Patrol
• Sergeant Julie Dobler – Forensic Identification
• Acting Sergeant Ron McFarlane- Forensic Identification
On March 6th, 2024, at 22:51hrs, Emergency Services including police, fire and ambulance responded to a home in the Barrhaven area of the city of Ottawa after a 911 caller reported that his family had been killed at that location.
The first responding police officers located an injured male outside of 322 Berrigan Drive. He had been stabbed multiple times. He told Constables Darren Trafford and Riley Emmons that he had been attacked by a tenant who resided with him. The two constables located the suspect seated on the front steps. He was placed under arrest, when he told them that he was going to be deported so he had no choice but to kill them all.
Inside the residence, officers located the bodies of six deceased people. Lifesaving medical intervention was attempted by numerous emergency personnel within the home; Constables Trafford and Hardinge entered the residence and located two victims, an adult and an infant in the upstairs bedroom. They performed CPR on both victims.
Constable Victoria Powers remained with the injured male and accompanied him to hospital for medical treatment. Constables Pierre White and Mitchell Hopkins searched the residence where they located four other victims in the basement. Constables Sebastien Couture and Paolo Crescenzi assisted advanced care paramedics in triaging the four victims in the basement. Sergeant O’Brien interviewed the suspect who provided a raw and graphic full confession on the how and why he committed the murders. Forensic officers Sergeant Julie Dobler and Acting Sergeant Ron McFarlane processed the gruesome scene.
The entire police investigation from the first responding officers to investigators was conducted at a level that resulted in the suspect pleading guilty on March 6, 2025 to four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips described “the level of violence in this case is stupefying, monstrous, even demonic. You are the stuff of nightmares. If I could give you consecutive sentences, I would.”
The murders of these victims shocked the Ottawa community. It was an unimaginable loss and caused grave concerns for safety. The professionalism, dedication, and self-sacrifice of these officers made the arrest, investigation, and successful prosecution of this homicide possible.
This work was not without personal sacrifice. The death of six people, including four children, has undoubtedly taken a toll on everyone involved. But these members conducted themselves in a manner that would do justice to these victims, their surviving father/husband, as well as the entire City of Ottawa who mourned for them.
These officers embodied the definition of “above and beyond”.
