Three people were found dead in a home in Huntsville, Ont. Friday evening, including a 52-year-old man who called police to tell them that he had weapons and had harmed two family members.
Ontario Provincial Police and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) are separately investigating the deaths.
According to the SIU, OPP officers received the call from the man around 9 p.m. As a result, they deployed crisis negotiators and their Emergency Response Team, setting up a perimeter around the home on Highview Drive.
The SIU said police spoke with the man over the phone, and when the communications stopped, officers sent a drone inside to search the home.
“The bodies of two deceased women were located, as was the body of a deceased man,” the SIU said.
The cause of their deaths is not immediately known.
In a separate news release, OPP said officers were dispatched to the home for a barricaded person after a report of a shooting.
They later located three people, including the armed individual, dead inside the residence, police said.
The identities of the three people have not been released.
“There is no threat to public safety,” police said. “However, residents in the area of Highview Drive should expect to see a large police presence throughout the weekend.”
OPP noted that no further details would be released as the SIU had invoked its mandate.
They said the SIU was notified because of an interaction between the officers and the barricaded person.
The SIU’s investigation is focused on the circumstances surrounding the death of the 52-year-old man while the OPP is conducting a homicide investigation.
The SIU, which is called in to investigate whenever police are involved in incidents that resulted in death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault, has assigned four investigators and two forensic investigators to the case.
The agency added that a postmortem examination is scheduled for Monday.
The SIU is asking anyone with information to contact its investigators at 1-800-787-8529 or online at https://siu.on.ca/en/appeals.php.