 OPP Const. Vu Pham (left) was shot dead Monday morning trying to intercept a truck. Fred Preston (right) was described by a friend as a moose hunter who is "as tough as nails."
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SEAFORTH, Ont. - The 70-year-old man identified as the suspect in the shooting death Monday of a Huron OPP constable is a retired logger whose marriage recently fell apart, a work colleague says.
Police Tuesday identified the suspect as Fred Preston of Burk's Falls, a small community between Barrie and North Bay.
John Kerr, owner of a wood-carving business in Gravenhurst, said Tuesday the white pickup truck in a Free Press aerial photograph of the shooting scene belongs to a man named Fred Preston who makes chainsaw carvings for him. He said Preston has family in the London area.
He described Preston as a "mellow, quiet, nice guy."
He said that despite his age, Preston was a moose hunter and "tough as nails."
Preston is in critical condition in hospital with gunshot wounds after a close-range shootout took place between a man and police near Seaforth on Monday. Sources say Preston suffered "several" gunshot wounds. No charges have been laid.
Kerr said he knows Preston as "a nice, quiet guy" who married his childhood sweetheart and who split with her months ago.
"She decided she wanted to separate all of a sudden and he couldn't figure out why," Kerr said Tuesday. She moved to Gravenhurst and he moved into an apartment. "He was getting upset because he was losing stuff everywhere," Kerr said.
Nevertheless, he said, Preston's wife was with him less than two weeks ago during a carving festival in Gravenhurst.
He recalled Preston telling him about a week ago that he, Preston, needed to move a family member to London.
Kerr said Preston had previously mentioned he had a daughter or daughter-in-law "down London way." That information could not be confirmed by The Free Press.
On Tuesday, Kerr said, the wood carver's daughter-in-law phoned and asked that Kerr stop selling Preston's sculptures because Preston was in hospital in critical condition.
Kerr said Preston carved large sculptures -- including bears and horse's heads -- that were all less than three metres tall because that's the largest that could fit into the bed of his white Dodge pickup. Shown a Free Press image of the crime scene, Kerr said the truck in the image belongs to Preston.
A woman answering the door at a house in Burk's Falls listed in the phone book under the name Fred Preston declined to comment.
"This has been all day," she said.
A Fred Preston who "would be about that age" was also reeve of Joly Township in 2000, township chief administrative officer and clerk Gerry Whittington said Tuesday.
But Whittington wouldn't confirm if that's the same Fred Preston identified Tuesday as being from nearby Burk's Falls, between Barrie and North Bay.
Whittington said he hadn't seen Preston recently but that would not be unusual because the former reeve rarely stopped by the municipal office. He said he would only be spreading rumour if he speculated whether the former reeve would have reason to be in Southern Ontario.
He didn't know Preston well, except that he was a logger who was either retired or semi-retired.
Elgin Schneider, mayor of nearby Sundridge when Preston served as reeve of Joly Township, was shocked by news of the shootout.
"If it's the same Fred Preston I know, it's totally out of character," Schneider said.
deb.vanbrenk@sunmedia.ca;joe.belanger@sunmedia.ca
With files from Free Press reporter Jane Sims and The North Bay Nugget.
