A Police Officer Guarding a Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, From an Unmarked Car Traded Fire With a Man Carrying a Rifle as Congregants Arrived for Yom Kippur Sunday Night. 'It Was Boom, Boom, Boom,' the Synagogue President Said. 'I Yelled for Everyone to Get on the Floor.'

A police officer and a man armed with a rifle were both wounded in an exchange of gunfire outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on Sunday evening as members of the Jewish community gathered to begin Yom Kippur services, authorities said. The officer is in critical but stable condition; the 29-year-old man was hospitalized in life-threatening condition.

Belleville police said the officer encountered the man around 7:10 p.m. near the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, in the area of Bleecker Avenue and Victoria Avenue, about 110 miles east of Toronto. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, the civilian agency that examines serious incidents involving police, confirmed the man had a rifle and sent investigators to the scene. Police have not said what led to the shooting or whether the synagogue or the Jewish community was the target, and said they would release no further details while the investigation is underway. A press conference was scheduled at the scene for 11 a.m. Monday.

Norman Weddum, the synagogue's president, was ushering people into the sanctuary when he heard the shots. "It was boom, boom, boom," he told CBC News Network on Monday. He went to the lobby, where the gunfire was clearer. "I could say, 'Oh, this is definitely … someone is shooting here,'" he said. "So that's when we ran back into the auditorium of the synagogue, closed the doors behind us so as to not leave a visible target and we hit the floor. Literally everyone went down. I yelled for everyone to get on to the floor and the shots continued for a few more seconds, and then it was basically over."

Weddum said the officer had been hired to protect the congregation that day and was stationed outside in an unmarked car, and made contact with the shooter as he approached the building. He told CNN the officer saved the lives of everyone inside and that the building had been riddled with bullets. No one inside was injured. All Yom Kippur services were canceled.

Chris Masterson, who lives nearby, said he was watching television when he heard three "loud pops." "There was a little bit of a pause and then I heard more shots," he said.

"I'm disgusted by the shooting that took place outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville earlier this evening as Jewish community members gathered to mark Yom Kippur," Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote on social media, saying Jewish people "have every right to gather and worship safely and without fear" and calling for those responsible to be arrested and prosecuted. Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis said the city had been "rocked" and that "stuff like this doesn't happen in Belleville." Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Jewish Torontonians "should not need police presence to observe Yom Kippur, or to simply live their day-to-day lives." Toronto police and York Regional Police said there was no known threat in their jurisdictions but that patrols at synagogues and other places of worship would be increased.

The shooting follows a string of attacks on Jewish sites in Canada that prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to warn earlier this year that the country was failing its Jewish community, citing shootings at Jewish schools, firebombings of synagogues and attacks on community centers and Jewish-owned businesses. His government has pledged millions in additional security funding for faith institutions. In March, gunfire damaged the entrances of synagogues in Vaughan and Toronto; three suspects were later arrested. Earlier this month, the Detroit-area Temple Israel reopened for the High Holidays six months after a man rammed a truck loaded with fireworks and gasoline into the building in what the FBI called "a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community."