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“You have to have proportional force to the force that you’re facing, and that is the difficult concept,” said Gordon Dykstra, a criminal defence attorney in Abbotsford, B.C. “If this was Louisiana, you could take your .45 and just blast away.”

On Wednesday, a man answering the phone at the home, located on Edward Street North in the town 50 minutes west of Ottawa, hung up after hearing it was from a reporter.

Neighbours say the home is occupied by a former military officer, his wife and their two teenaged children. “(A) nice couple, salt of the earth people, good neighbours,” neighbour Greg Wright told CTV Ottawa. “Oh yeah, kind of a shock.”

Their home borders an industrial area and well-used bike path, and it had apparently become a prime target for local burglars, with multiple break-ins last summer. The man had installed an alarm system and lights on the side of his home and garage as a precaution, a neighbour said.

“I think he was pushed too far, you know? It wasn’t going to happen again,” said the neighbour, who didn’t want to be identified. “That was somebody in their house or in their yard. That’s the only reason this happened.”

The night of his death, Mr. Blaskie had told Jennifer Prince, his girlfriend of two years, that he was heading out for a bike ride.

“It was nothing unusual for Corey to bike at nighttime,” said Ms. Prince. “He enjoyed the tranquillity of being able to bike around the town for an hour when he couldn’t sleep.”