FIRST READING: Yet another Canadian massacre prevented at the last minute by police - National Post

Officials with the Special Investigations Unit are seen exiting an SIU vehicle on Victoria Avenue on the morning of Monday, Sept 21, not far from the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville. Photo by DEREK BALDWIN/Belleville IntelligencerArticle contentFirst Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

Once again, a potential Canadian massacre appears to have been halted within seconds of disaster by the quick actions of police.

On Sunday night, congregants at a Yom Kippur service at a Belleville, Ont., synagogue dropped for cover at the sound of gunfire  outside the building.

Multiple witness accounts described one large boom, likely from a shotgun, followed quickly by pops, possibly from a pistol.

The next day, investigators revealed that a gunman had opened fire on a Belleville Police Service officer with the apparent intention of then turning his gun on the approximately 25 congregants massed in the Sons of Jacob synagogue.

Instead, the wounded officer, Const. Jeff Smith, was able to return fire and hold back the attacker. In conjunction with a second officer who scrambled to the scene, Smith was able to subdue the shooter, who was hit multiple times.

Jeff Smith is a real hero.A Belleville Police officer who put himself in harm’s way protecting our community. Please pray for Jeff, his family and his fellow officers.Our community is behind you, Jeff. Stay strong. Keep fighting. Come home to your family. pic.twitter.com/7tBeWH0C4T

“It’s believed that the individual came in a truck and he had a shotgun and he discharged his firearm at a police officer,” Kristy Denette, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, told reporters.

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Denette added that it was “common sense” to suggest that the shooter had targeted the officer as a prelude to attacking the synagogue.

Police identified the suspected gunman as 29-year-old Sean Ward of nearby Quinte West.

The response to the Sons of Jacob incident is reminiscent of a 2017 ISIS-inspired terror attack in Edmonton. There again, an assailant initiated an attempt at a civilian massacre, only to have the effort thwarted by a frontline police officer.

Abdulahi Sharif, a Somalian national who had claimed asylum in Canada just five years prior, began his attack by driving a Chevrolet Malibu into Const. Michael Chernyk, 48, an Edmonton Police officer performing traffic control for an Edmonton Eskimos game at Commonwealth Stadium.

After striking Chernyk with the car, Sharif then stabbed the officer at least three times in the head with a kitchen knife in an attempt to steal his service pistol.

Instead, the badly wounded Chernyk not only protected his firearm, but was able to overpower Sharif and get control of the knife.