Fundraiser Aims to Raise $1 Million for Belleville Cop Shot Outside Synagogue

Members of Canada’s Jewish community set up the GoFundMe to support Const. Jeff Smith, and have raised $840,000 as of Sept. 28. According to fundraiser organizer Derek Kreindler, more than 7,000 people have donated to the campaign.

“What began as an immediate expression of gratitude has become a national demonstration of what Canadians believe: when someone risks his life protecting others, the people he protected will remember him and stand behind his family,” Kreindler wrote.

Smith and another officer who arrived a few minutes later, Const. Michael McCurdy, were able to strike the 29 year-old shooter, who later died in the hospital. Smith remains in the hospital, and his wife Ashley

he faces a “very long, difficult road ahead.”

“I know Jeff. He is the best man I know. He loves his family with his whole heart,” she wrote. “And right now, he is fighting. So we will fight with him.”

The Canadian Armed Forces has confirmed that Ward was a former soldier who was discharged in 2022 with the rank of corporal. A video of the shooting played at a police press conference

contained audio of the suspect yelling “you are going to die for the Jews” before firing at Smith.

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd told reporters during the press conference that the shooting met the provincial policing standards’ definition of a hate-motivated attack, and that the shooter had “combustible” materials in his vehicle. 

“The suspect had the means, the motive, and the mechanisms to cause a mass casualty and the destruction of the Jewish synagogue, the loss of life, and irreversible damage that could have rippled through our community for generations,” Rodd said.

The Special Investigations Unit, which investigates police-involved shootings, has said the shooter fired 20 to 30 rounds, and the police officers shot multiple rounds as well. Some of the bullets hit the stained glass windows of the synagogue, forcing more than 25 worshippers inside to take shelter on the floor, but nobody inside the synagogue was hurt.

The City of Belleville said in

statement that Smith and McCurdy are “true heroes who showed extraordinary courage” on the night of the shooting, and had prevented an “unimaginable tragedy.”