Two men are dead and a community is in shock after an apparent dispute over a trapping line ended in gunfire Wednesday night in Tamworth, north of Napanee.

One unidentified man was killed and the other, Morton Lewis, 59, shot himself after police located his pickup truck on Highway 15, about 16 km north of Tamworth, shortly after the initial shootings.

Two others were injured in the shooting spree. A firefighter was shot in the arm by Lewis and a woman suffered a broken ankle and was choked by the suspect, after he rammed her car with his pickup truck.

According to a resident, the dispute was over the deceased man giving a trapping line, that had been used by Lewis, to another man.

It was a deadly rampage that left the village of about 500 in shock.

Residents said after killing the man Lewis traveled into the village where he apparently pointed his gun at Kate McDonald, a staff member at the post office. At some point, for an undetermined reason he then shot Chase Wayte, a local firefighter, in the arm.

As he tried to leave in his truck he rammed another vehicle that was in his way, breaking the ankle of Karen Cassidy, the lone occupant of the car. He also reportedly exited his truck, smashed the window of the car and choked Cassidy before leaving.

Lewis then killed himself a short while later as police closed in on him.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which is investigating because Lewis died as police were searching for him, said in a statement that his truck was located by an OPP officer around 5:20 p.m. The officer exited his cruiser and was approaching the truck when he heard a gunshot. A tactical unit was called in and found Lewis in the bushes a short distance away from the truck.

At a media conference shortly before 2 p.m. on Thursday, OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae confirmed that police were not involved in the death of either man, countering some earlier media reports.

“This is not a police shooting,” she said.

Both Wayte and Cassidy were sent to hospital. A Stone Mills Township representative said that Wayte had been released from hospital on Thursday.

Local residents reported seeing Lewis driving his pickup truck erratically up and down the streets of Tamworth.

“My husband and son were skating at the arena last night just before (5 p.m.), and they heard lots of police,” said Denise Frizzell. “People said he was driving crazy up and down the road here.”

Frizzell said she was the suspect’s neighbour for a period of time, and said that he hunted on the property next to theirs for years.

Frizzell did not seem shocked, but rather grim.

“It doesn’t take much for people to snap,” said Frizzell.

Terry Allison, who works at the A-One Corner Restaurant and Variety in Tamworth, said she has never seen a situation like this in her 35 years in the community.

“Not in all the years I’ve been here, since 1979,” she said. “It is (unusual). It is heartbreaking, but I just hope the ones that were injured survived all right. I can’t say much for the person that caused it all, but what are you going to do?"

Rae, who was on site at the Tamworth post office Thursday afternoon, one of six crime scenes being investigated, had little new information to share due to the SIU investigation.

"Anytime there is an incident and if we’re involved in it, and someone has been seriously injured or killed, they have their process to make sure there wasn’t any wrongdoing with the police with what we did,” she said. “It really cuts down on what we can say.”

When asked how long the investigation could continue, Rae said that she has seen SIU investigations take from seven months up to three years.

“It’s part of the process,” she said. “They have their job to do and the public wants to make sure everything is clear-cut and we’re not overstepping our boundaries.”

meghan.balogh@sunmedia.ca