Stratford, Ontario, neighborhood saves itself after fatal neighbor dispute

Residents of a small suburb of Stratford, Ontario, are still grappling with the tragic outcome of a neighborhood dispute that two dead and two seriously injured Thursday evening.

“It was seven shots within a two-minute span,” said Sarah Evans, who lives near Bradshaw Drive and McCarthy Road W where the shooting occurred.

“Three shots and quiet, and then two more shots and quiet.”

Evans was home when she and her husband heard gunshots from 31-year-old Ricky Bilke, right outside their bedroom window.

“It was shocking to hear,” she said.

Police say they received multiple 911 calls around 10:45 p.m. Thursday night. When they arrived, they found four people suffering from gunshot wounds, according to police. Two of the people died, including 36-year-old Jonathan Bennett. Bilke also died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The two injured are a 43-year-old man and a woman. Their ages have not been disclosed.

The shooting broke out after “an ongoing neighborhood dispute,” police said.

‘An isolated incident’

Although Evans was initially shocked by the gunshots, she says she does not fear for her safety.

“It was an isolated incident,” she said.

That is a statement shared by many residents of this small neighborhood. One of them is Kira Brine.

“Honestly, I feel safe,” she said. “This was an isolated incident and I know there was a lot more police presence.”

Brine is good friends with the owners of the house where she says Bilke rented a room. Brine said she has run into Bilke several times since he moved in.

“Every time I came into contact with him, he was extremely kind. He always had a smile,” she said.

However, she did say she knew there were problems between Bilke and his victims. She said the police had been called almost every weekend this summer and that they had to resolve differences between the parties.

“This is not something that is completely new. This is something that has been going on for a number of weeks, actually a number of months,” Brine said.

Stratford police spokesman Const. Darren Fischer said “there are a number of ongoing neighborhood disputes between the parties involved.”

Still, Brine said she didn’t see this coming.

“Nobody expected it. It came completely out of nowhere,” she said.

All of Stratford has taken notice and it is the job of Mayor Martin Ritsma to allay the concerns in the city.

“It’s a small community where you can travel across the entire city in 12 minutes,” Ritsma said, noting that these types of events “can spread fear throughout the community.”

Ritsma said he spoke with the local chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association on Friday and will take steps in the future to ensure Stratford City Council makes more of an effort to recognize the mental health challenges people face in the community.

“It’s important that we don’t just drive on and think, ‘OK, that’s it,’” he said.

“We have work to do, and that work is important work.”