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 Police traced Hugh Ferguson to his Mono Twp. home early Saturday. They denied shots were fired at police during the standoff. (Sun Media/Dave Ritchie) |
TORONTO -- The son of a man who shot his estranged wife in a tragic murder-suicide in Orangeville over the weekend has come to the defence of his dead father.
"My father was a wonderful man and was not the crazy man that shot at cops during the event as you stated," wrote the couple's son Connor, 14, in an e-mail disputing an account of what occurred. The couple also has an older daughter attending university.
"You would never understand the full story behind the ... situation between my mother and father," the young teen wrote.
Heidi Ferguson, 39, made her way into her neighbour's home seeking help around 1 a.m. Saturday after she was shot by her estranged husband, Hugh, 42, during his second visit within an hour to the victim's Westdale Ave. home.
The teen wrote the e-mail to the Sun, objecting to an interview with a neighbour who claimed the man shot the tires of an OPP van.
Yesterday, police said no shots had been fired at officers. Instead, they said, the van had driven over a spike belt police had earlier laid out on the roadway.
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Meanwhile OPP sources said yesterday police were searching for Hugh Ferguson before he returned to his estranged wife's home and shot her early Saturday.
The dead woman's neighbours refused comment yesterday. But others who lived nearby said a fatally wounded Heidi Ferguson stumbled into the neighbour's home through an unlocked door in the early hours of Saturday.
Timing was critical in the tragedy.
OPP spokesman Const. Peter Leon said about an hour before the shooting, police received an initial call for a domestic dispute at the address. There was no report of a weapon being involved -- but Leon wouldn't say if Heidi Ferguson was threatened or assaulted.
Then, as Orangeville police were investigating the original call, they were called back to the residence, Leon said.
He said Hugh Ferguson had left the house during the first incident and was not present when police arrived.
"They were in the midst of trying to locate him" when police were called the second time for the wounded Heidi Ferguson. While she was being taken to hospital, Orangeville police found Hugh Ferguson in his Madill Dr. home in nearby Mono Twp. and called for help from the OPP.
Back in the Westdale neighbourhood, the incident has left the community shaken.
"This is a quiet neighbourhood, nothing happens," said a woman across the street.
"We never visited back and forth.
"She was just a nice neighbour," the woman said. "We always had good neighbours, help each other out."
The Special Investigations Unit is investigating.