’You’re not killing him’: Jewish mother tells how she shielded son during Belleville synagogue shooting - National Post
Sharlene Weitzman, right, and Jennifer Aronson, were among the roughly two dozen congregants inside the Sons of Jacob synagogue during a shooting incident outside the Belleville place of worship on Sunday evening. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National PostArticle contentAs the thunder of gunfire erupted outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue on Sunday evening, Sharlene Weitzman, one of roughly two dozen congregants inside, thought first of protecting her son, Finn Luke Weitzman, who had accompanied her to mark the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jewish community.
“I wasn’t going to let my child be killed at 19 years of age for being a Jew,” she told National Post in an exclusive interview three days after the shocking shooting near the modest shul in a quiet Belleville, Ont., neighbourhood.
“You can kill me, I’m 59, but you’re not killing him.”
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Weitzman pushed her son down against concrete and used her body to shield him, with her arms wrapped around him. So determined was she to safeguard his life, she said if a shooter had come through the close-by doors of the synagogue at that moment, she was “ready to pounce.”
Thankfully, Weitzman, her partner Jennifer Aronson, nor any of the others sheltering from bullets hitting the stained glass of their synagogue that evening were forced to act.
Const. Jeff Smith of the Belleville Police Service was already on the scene and returned fire when suspected shooter Sean Ward of nearby Quinte West arrived and opened fire with a shotgun, according to the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The 13-year veteran officer was struck during the shootout, but was joined by another responding officer not yet identified, and both were able to stop the shooter.
Smith remains in Kingston General Hospital in critical but stable condition while Ward, a 29-year-old former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, died there on Tuesday. Ward had been released from the CAF in 2022, with a source telling Global News it was over his refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that Ward also “spouted” antisemitic conspiracy theories, including one that blamed the Jewish community for the pandemic disease.
Sean Ward, the suspect in a shooting outside a Belleville, Ont., synagogue. Photo by Doug Ward/FacebookArticle contentWeitzman said another jarring thought came to her mind amid the chaos, one that she’s not been able to shake: a vision of what it would look like if it turned out like the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel.
