 Ontario Provincial Police tactical unit officers swarmed into Trenton Friday morning for a manhunt for the suspect in the Valley Road shooting in Prince Edward Friday. JEROME LESSARD /QMI AGENCY
|
BELLEVILLE, Ont. -- News that a Belleville, Ont. man was charged in the shooting of three women seemed out of character for the "great guy," his friend says.
Dean Brown, 18, of Belleville is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Tracy Hannah, 46 and her daughter Whitney Hannah, 14, both of Ameliasburgh Ward in Prince Edward County, Ont., about 200 kilometres east of Toronto.
An 18-year-old woman identified by sources as their daughter and sister, Shannon Hannah, was in serious but stable condition Friday night in Kingston General Hospital.
Andrew Bury of Belleville called Brown, whom he has known for three to four years, one of his best friends.
He said Brown and Shannon Hannah attended the same high school and had dated for several years but were no longer a couple.
"They were very close. They trusted each other," Bury said. "They loved each other. They were a great couple. He would go out and buy her expensive rings and stuff." Brown broke off the relationship several weeks ago because he didn't want to be "tied down," Bury said.
"They were still on good terms," said Bury.
Brown's profile on Facebook.com lists recent changes in his relationship status. He first changed the listing showing him as "in a relationship" to "it's complicated." More recently he listed himself as being in a relationship with a woman, then finally single.
Bury said he and Brown were among the patrons of a local bar Thursday night.. He said he's known Brown for three to four years.
"We were at my place first," Bury said via telephone.
He said they then took a taxi to Matt and Joe's Nightclub on Bell Boulevard.
The bar is one of the city's most popular nightspots among young adults.
Bury said they arrived at about 11 p.m. and were joined by one of Brown's brothers and others. They parted ways at around 1 a.m. and Bury said he did not see Brown afterward.
"It got kind of packed so we lost each other," he said. "He just kind of disappeared and went and did his own thing." Two men who refused to give their names claimed they drank with Brown at a Front Street bar until 2 a.m.
"He came in half boozed up with four friends," said one man. Brown was angry because he didn't have enough money for drinks and his friends wouldn't buy them for him, the man said.
He said he bought Brown a shot of whisky, then several more rounds.
"He was boozed but he wasn't so f---ed that he couldn't walk around the bar," he said.
The man said Brown was trying to chat up a woman and was still at the bar at 2 a.m.
During their discussion, he said, Brown told him he was upgrading his education at either Belleville's Loyola Community Learning Centre or Loyalist College.
Shannon Hannah's Facebook profile lists her as a nursing student at Loyalist.
"We know there was a tragic incident this morning in Prince Edward County and we understand that there may have been involvement with one or more Loyalist students but none of that is confirmed," college president Maureen Piercy said. "We really can't make any comment at this time." Brown lived with his mother and a brother, Bury said, and may have been working -- possibly on a temporary basis -- with a moving company.
"He didn't really have a solid job for that long." Bury described Brown as a "great guy" who was "calm" and easygoing when sober.
"He's like the nicest person you'd ever want to meet," he said. "He's the first one to help someone out if they need it ... He's absolutely normal. That's the only way to put it."
But he also said Brown's mood changed when he drank.
"He has a temper," said Bury. "When he drinks, he fights. He always does. We expect it from him." He added, however, that he couldn't understand his friend's arrest.
"That's not Dean. That's just not the way he is." Bury said he got a text message Friday on his cell phone telling him of the deaths and Brown's arrest.
"It came as such a shock to me."
lhendry@intelligencer.ca
