Police release names of shooting victims

Five guns recovered from home where engaged couple were tenants

Police identified Carissa MacDonald, 27, and Aaron Stone, 28, as victims in a homicide in Stoney Creek on Saturday.

The couple who planned to end their tenancy at a detached house just north of Barton Street East, were shot dead after what police describe as a dispute with their landlord over mould in their basement apartment.

The 57-year-old landlord who lived upstairs was killed during an exchange of gunfire with a police officer after he barricaded himself inside the home. Property records show Terry Brekka bought the house in March 2003.

Five firearms and one police-issued gun were recovered from the Jones Road residence, says the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which probes incidents involving police in Ontario where someone dies or is seriously hurt. The weapons have been sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences for examination, the SIU said Tuesday.

The weapons were a “combination of handguns and long guns,” Hamilton police Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk said Tuesday. He said the firearms were “appropriately stored” in a gun safe, and “a number of them were registered.”

Bereziuk said “ammunition was recovered from the house.” He noted “numerous shots were fired from that residence.”

MacDonald and Stone, who were engaged to be married, were originally from Huntsville and Hamilton respectively, police said.

Stone, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 105. MacDonald was an educational assistant in the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board.