Police gather close to the location where an officer was shot in Welland, Ont., while police were responding to reports of gunfire on Dec. 19.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
A member of the small religious sect whose church was the scene of a tense standoff between police and an armed man in Welland, Ont., this weekend says the conflict was years in the making.
Justin Aldrich said Daniel Tronko, who was arrested Saturday after barricading himself inside the building, was well armed and prepared to fight to the end to protect the compound he owns, which he calls the Church of the Higher Consciousness.
On Friday morning, police say, Mr. Tronko shot a female officer who had come to the property with City of Welland bylaw officials after complaints about an illegal fence around the property. The officer, who was wearing a protective vest, was hit in the chest and narrowly escaped more serious injuries.
The shooting forced a stay-in-place order for the neighbourhood around the former Hungarian Presbyterian Church in Welland, a city located southwest of Niagara Falls. The affected area includes the city’s main hospital, several schools, nursing homes and dozens of residences and businesses. School buses were rerouted, teaching staff were evacuated, and residents were told to stay indoors and avoid windows.
Justin Aldrich says he doesn’t know what will happen to the building now that Daniel Tronko has been arrested.Supplied
Dozens of heavily armed tactical officers surrounded the building and began a 24-hour standoff with Mr. Tronko, 59, who was alone inside except for a guard dog. Mr. Aldrich, 41, who is a director of the church and was a child when he first met Mr. Tronko, said the man he considers his spiritual leader and a father-like figure had talked about just such a confrontation for a long time.
“That’s his land, and he has every right to fight for it,” Mr. Aldrich told The Globe and Mail. “I’m surprised that he surrendered.”
Mr. Aldrich said Mr. Tronko founded the church in 2012, and wanted to turn it into a sovereign, religious sanctuary with a unique set of values that included anti-government beliefs, self-reliance and Buddhist teachings. Together, they worked to make the property self-sufficient – digging a well and shutting off city water, putting in a garden, removing a natural gas line and building a tall fence. In the basement, they built a machine shop, and they removed the pews upstairs to make space for a bedroom and an altar with Buddhist statues, Tibetan bowls and drums.
As conflicts with city officials over the property grew, including complaints about its barbed wire and bonfires, Mr. Aldrich said, Mr. Tronko began talking about the need to defend his compound, which he saw as independent from the laws of Canada.
“I saw the shooting coming because it was well talked about many times. They were warned. They escalated, not him,” Mr. Aldrich said. “It wasn’t like he was going out to purchase weapons to make this big statement and have this big war. But the amount of guns that he did collect over the years was substantial enough.”
Mr. Tronko, 59, in this undated photo outside the entrance of the church’s machine shop, has been arrested after an armed standoff in Welland.Supplied
The Church of Higher Consciousness was a federally registered charity, but had its status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency this year for failing to file its annual financial information. In recent years, the church has stopped offering public services, and it’s unclear how many active members it has.
Mr. Aldrich told The Globe he helped police by drawing detailed sketches of the inside of the building where Mr. Tronko was hiding, and even recorded messages urging him to give himself up.
“I didn’t want to see an officer get shot and I didn’t want to see him get shot either. So I helped, to the best of my knowledge,” he said.
When Mr. Tronko was eventually arrested and taken to hospital with undisclosed injuries, the building’s guard dog was seized and handed over to Mr. Aldrich.
Stephanie Sabourin, a spokesperson for the Niagara Regional Police, said she couldn’t confirm details of Mr. Aldrich’s story because Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, is now investigating. The SIU automatically investigates whenever police discharge their weapons.
In a statement, Niagara Regional Police said they attempted to negotiate with Mr. Tronko throughout the standoff Friday and into the overnight hours early on Saturday. They sent remote cameras into the building that were fired upon and disabled, “demonstrating a disregard for public and officer safety.”
A tactical police vehicle in Welland, Ont., was part of the response to reports of gunfire in the city’s downtown area.
While he had a long history of disputes with the municipality and bylaw officials, Mr. Tronko did not have a criminal record. His late father, Edward J. Tronko, was a member of the Ontario Provincial Police who was awarded a Police Exemplary Service Medal by the governor-general in 1984.
Mr. Aldrich said despite the shooting, the Church of the Higher Consciousness believes in mindful self-awareness through meditation and living in peace. Mr. Tronko, who according to Mr. Aldrich received a disability pension, paid for much of the church’s operations through online donations, and it previously had tax-exempt status.
At one point, they proposed converting the building into a homeless shelter, and wanted to offer machinery classes in the basement, Mr. Aldrich said. Mr. Tronko also lobbied city hall to turn adjacent vacant land into a space for meditation – but all of these ideas met with resistance from the municipality, he said.
Marc MacDonald, a spokesperson for the City of Welland, declined to comment on the municipality’s dealings with Mr. Tronko or the property.
Mr. Aldrich said he doesn’t know what will happen to the building now that Mr. Tronko has been arrested. But he worries that the property may have to be sold to pay Mr. Tronko’s legal bills. All of this was avoidable if the authorities had just let their church be, he said.
“Dan wants to be left alone. Just like anybody, they want to be left alone,” he said. “The beliefs we have are very deep. I grew up hating the government. He grew up hating the government. It’s clear that the governments are just creating division in this country.”