Oakville woman found dead, minutes after man is killed by police

An Oakville woman was found dead in her home on Thursday, minutes after a man was shot and killed by police outside a nearby police station.

Halton Regional Police are calling the woman's death suspicious, but declined to say whether it was related to the shooting at the police station, which is being investigated by Ontario's police watchdog.

Katherine Newman, 43, was found dead at her townhouse on Treetop Terrace shortly before noon, police said. Ms. Newman was a trained nurse who moved into the house last summer with her two sons.

Her father, Walter Stayshyn, is a retired Superior Court judge in Hamilton and her aunt, Irene Stayshyn, is on the Hamilton Police Services Board.

On Thursday afternoon, police tape cordoned off Ms. Newman's townhouse. A neighbour a few doors down, Abaid Rahman, said the large police presence included what he called tactical officers and he was instructed to stay inside his house.

A neighbour across the street, who declined to give her name, said Ms. Newman had moved in during the summer. She had two pre-teen sons and although the two women weren't close, Ms. Newman was always friendly and waved hello.

"I'm staying in my house," the neighbour said, noting she was afraid to go outside. "I feel sorry for the children."

While police investigated, two nearby Catholic elementary schools were placed into a form of lockdown, called a hold and secure, allowing the school day to continue but stopping anyone from going in or out. Both orders were lifted by 2 p.m.

About 15 minutes before Ms. Newman's body was found, a man was noticed "causing damage" in the Halton Regional Police station's parking lot, according to Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Monica Hudon. She could not say what type of damage the man was causing or give any details about him.

The police station is about a 10-minute drive from Ms. Newman's home.

"Officers went outside to deal with the issue, there was an interaction between officers and the man and he was shot by police," Ms. Hudon said. Later, police tape marked off a section of the lot where at least three police vehicles sat near the man's tarp-covered body. A silver Nissan with the driver's door flung open was left crashed against a police vehicle.

Sergeant Dave Cross said he couldn't say whether the Nissan was driven by the man or what led him to the police station. The car was registered to an Enterprise Rent-a-Car location in Scarborough. "I'm not sure what led the individual to the parking lot, what sort of preamble," Sgt. Cross said.

Halton police issued a brief statement saying the interaction with the unidentified man at the police station involved "some uniform officers" and that no police were harmed. Since the SIU is investigating, police will not be releasing more details, the statement said.

The SIU has seven investigators and three forensic investigators trying to determine what happened at the station but is yet to say how many shots were fired or how many officers were involved.

Ms. Hudon, who has worked at the SIU for three years, said she did not recall another case where someone was shot outside a police station.