Tony Bernardo is the Executive Director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

A Montreal police officer is dead. A civilian is dead. Another officer was seriously injured. The suspect is dead. That’s the starting point, and it’s grave enough without politicians pretending the investigation is already finished.

Canadian news outlets reported that Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, was killed after police responded to reports of a shooter near a Hilton hotel in Côte-des-Neiges.

Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher said the suspect was armed with a long gun, that police were met with gunfire, and that investigators were still trying to determine motive. He also said he did not know who shot civilian victim Michel Mizrahi.

CBC reported that both Benredouane and Mizrahi were honoured in separate ceremonies, and that Mizrahi was remembered as a generous community member who reportedly helped others flee danger.

CTV reported that Benredouane left behind a pregnant wife and a three-year-old child, and that his family asked people to stop sharing graphic videos of his final moments.

That’s critical. These were human beings, not props in a policy fight.

The Montreal Gazette also reported that the suspect, identified as Seth Hatfield of Lethbridge, AB, was linked to a 104-page manifesto filled with extremist grievance politics, misogyny, and rhetoric associated with incel ideology. The Gazette said it reviewed the document but chose not to publish or link to it to avoid amplifying its message.

That’s the correct editorial decision.

The manifesto raises serious public-safety questions. So does CTV’s reporting that the RCMP opened a national security investigation into ideologically motivated violent extremism.

But those facts do not automatically answer the firearm-policy questions politicians are already eager to exploit.

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