Paramedics Christian Larochelle, Yan Bellefeuille, Jean-François Fillion, and Stéphane Huppé (centre), surrounded by the mayors of Prescott and Russell and others, were honoured with provincial Awards for Bravery for their exceptional courage in providing medical aid to wounded police officers during an armed standoff in May 2023 between the OPP and a lone armed gunman in the Village of Bourget. (Supplied photo)
They risked their lives to help others and now four members of Prescott and Russell’s ambulance service are being recognized and honoured for their selfless courage.
“Courage that was not planned, not rehearsed, but revealed in a moment of chaos,” said Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Inspector Normand Lamontagne, as he presented provincial Awards of Bravery to four local paramedics during the May 27 session of United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR).
On May 11, 2023, paramedics Christian Larochelle, Yan Bellefeuille, Jean-François Fillion, and Stéphane Huppé jointed other emergency services personnel in responding to an incident at a residence in the Village of Bourget. Police officers answered a call reporting a gunshot. When they arrived, they were all shot at and wounded by the suspect in the house.
Ambulance units arrived on the scene soon after and that, Insp. Lamontagne noted, is when the four paramedics demonstrated extraordinary courage, facing circumstances that put their own safety at risk.
“These individuals arrived with one purpose: to save lives,” said Insp. Lamontagne, adding that they were walking into “extreme danger”, unaware until they arrived on the scene that the standoff between the OPP and the gunman inside the house was not yet resolved.
“At that moment, they had every reason to retreat,” said Insp. Lamontagne. “They had every justification to place their own safety first. But they did not.”
The four paramedics applied emergency treatment to the wounded officers in preparation to remove them from the site to the waiting ambulances. Other OPP arriving on the scene dealt with the armed suspect inside the residence.
“This is not simply professionalism,” said Insp. Lamontagne, regarding the actions of Larochelle, Bellefeuille, Fillion, and Huppé. “This is not simply duty. This is heroism.”
UCPR Warden Mario Zanth added praise from himself and the other seven mayors representing the communities of Prescott and Russell concerning the risks that paramedics, police, firefighters and other emergency personnel sometimes face in serving residents.
“It takes courage to do your jobs every day,” said Zanth. “We really appreciate it.”
The incident
Early in the morning of May 11, 2023, three OPP officers—Sgt. Eric Mueller, Const. Marc Lauzon, and Const. François Gamache-Asselin—responded to a rural home on Laval Street in Bourget after a neighbour reported hearing a gunshot. As the officers entered the residence to perform a wellness check, the occupant, Alain Bellefeuille, opened fire. He discharged 19 rounds from a semi-automatic SKS rifle that he had illegally modified with a high-capacity magazine to hold over 20 rounds.
In the aftermath, Sgt. Mueller died from the gunshot wounds, while Const. Lauzon was critically wounded, surviving after undergoing seven subsequent surgeries. Const. Gamache-Asselin was also struck and injured.
Bellefeuille was arrested at the scene and charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. His high-profile trial took place in the spring of 2025.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of Sgt. Mueller, alongside concurrent 20-year sentences for the attempted murders.
