What we know and don’t know about Innisfil shooter Chris Doncaster

The Star identified 23-year-old Chris Doncaster as the dead shooter after he killed two South Simcoe police officers in a ‘shootout’ at a home in the small town of Innisfil on Tuesday night, a source says close to the survey.

According to social media and court and loan documents, Doncaster lived at the house on Somers Boulevard, a quiet residential street near Lake Simcoe; neighbors said he lived there with his grandmother.

Clues to Doncaster’s background so far offer little explanation of what happened inside the house before Const. Devon Northrup, 33, and Const. Morgan Russell, 54, was shot and killed.

Here’s what the star knows and doesn’t know about Chris Doncaster:

He was briefly enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces.

In 2020 social media posts, the Doncaster grandmother proudly shared her grandson’s enlistment, but his time with the military was short.

A Department of Defense spokesperson confirmed to The Star that Christopher Joseph Doncaster was a member of the CAF from May to December 2020, at the rank of private, with no deployment history.

« The individual has not completed basic training, » the spokesperson said Thursday, adding that the details of his release from service are covered by the Privacy Act.

He used an SKS rifle, an already controversial semi-automatic weapon.

Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Kristy Denette confirmed the rifle was recovered from the scene by investigators. (The SIU investigates all incidents where a person dies during or after an interaction with police.)

The Liberal government came under fire in 2020 after the Soviet-designed SKS – previously used in the 2019 killings in northern British Columbia – was not part of a ban on many other semi-automatic weapons.

The rifle, which was designed in the 1940s and made militarily obsolete by the more famous AK-47, is legal to buy in Canada, but easily modified with a larger illegal magazine.

The initial call to the police was for a « disturbance ».

Investigators have not identified Doncaster as the shooter, but the SIU has confirmed that the person who was killed was a resident of the home and that a family member of the home called police about the incident. a disturbance involving the prospective shooter.

The details of this « disturbance » have not been disclosed.

He had previously been charged with minor offences.

In 2018, Doncaster was charged with mischief under $5,000 and two counts of failing to appear in court.

The charges were dropped.

It is not clear that the police knew what they were walking into.

It was not immediately clear whether the Doncaster SKS rifle was legally owned and registered, or whether responding officers knew it was in the house.

It is also unclear whether they had any previous contact with Doncaster, or whether they knew he was a former member of the armed forces.

Acting South Simcoe Police Chief John Van Dyke said they were shot « on arrival ».

SIU spokesman Denette told The Star Thursday, « Based on preliminary information, the two officers did not draw their firearms when they were shot. A third officer who stood also found at the house exchanged gunfire with the man.

He was active on social media.

Accounts on Instagram, Twitter and video game streaming platform Twitch show Doncaster had an interest in mixed martial arts and popular first-person shooter video games.

Photos from this year show him hanging out with friends and showing off some fancy clothes.

In a nighttime photo, released in September 2021, he can be seen smiling as he sits on a South Simcoe Police jet ski docked at a dock.

Another set of posts from 2020 shows a brand new GMC pickup truck – which he had received a car loan for.

In bios online, he described himself as an « entrepreneur », saying he would offer a bitcoin prize if his number of Instagram followers – less than 500 – exceeded 50,000.

Early accounts offer few obvious warning signs.

None of Doncaster’s social media accounts or comments from people who knew his family have yet provided a clear explanation as to why he might shoot responding officers.

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