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Court records show that the man who killed four people – including three of his own children – before turning a gun on himself in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., last week was convicted two decades ago of smashing a police car window and impaired driving. 

Family have identified the gunman behind the shooting rampage in the northern Ontario city as Bobbie Hallaert, who was also charged with assaulting a police officer in Sault Ste. Marie in 2019.    

Court documents obtained by The Canadian Press show that Hallaert was convicted in 2003 of causing a disturbance at sports bar and breaking the rear window of a police vehicle in Midland, Ont., in August 2002. 

Further records show that Hallaert pleaded guilty in October 2004 to impaired driving and failing to stop for a police officer in March of that year in the central Ontario township of Tay. 

Police in Sault Ste. Marie, who have not named Hallaert, have called the shooting a case of intimate partner violence. 

Police have said the 44-year-old shooter first broke into a home on the night of Oct. 23 and killed a 41-year-old woman before heading to a second home and killing three children – aged six, seven and 12 – and shooting another woman, aged 45, who survived.      

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2023.

The Canadian Press