'Heartbreak': Family identifies Angie Sweeney as first shooting victim

The crime scene tape has been removed from the house on Tancred Street where a Sault Ste. Marie woman was killed in a mass murder-suicide earlier this week. 

Angie Sweeney was 41 when she died of a gunshot wound on Monday at her Tancred Street home. She was the first of four victims to die that evening, along with 6, 7 and 12-year-old children killed at a second address.

Her parents, Brian and Suzanne Sweeney, have told SooToday they now consent to the release of her name to the public.

On Tuesday, less than a full day after his daughter's killing, Brian posted the following on his Facebook page:

"Well it has been almost 24 hours since the Tragic loss of my Baby Girl and the heart has never been so HEAVY in PAIN of Heartbreak," he said. "I will forever keep you in what is left of this man's heart. My baby girl, daddy loves you."

Flowers, candles and a sign that reads "Angie, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend" are now on display outside the home.

About 10 minutes after a 911 call was made in the area of Sweeney's Tancred Street home, a second call came in regarding someone with a firearm at a residence in the 200 block of Second Line East.

When police arrived at that second scene, they found an injured woman, the bodies of three children, as well as that of the 44-year-old gunman, Bobbie Hallaert. The woman, 45, survived the attack, but police have not disclosed her condition or her name.

Because the shooting rampage was a case of intimate partner violence, Sault Police are not revealing details that could identify the surviving victim. 

A search warrant for the Second Line address turned up two weapons: a long gun and a handgun.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Hugh Stevenson of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service revealed that the gunman was the subject of numerous investigations for intimate partner violence, including a call just days before the killings “that could be perceived as domestic violence.”

Stevenson did not expand on the investigations or confirm if there were any arrests or convictions. Court documents obtained by SooToday reveal the gunman was under a one-year weapons ban beginning in December of 2021 in relation to a conviction for assaulting a police officer. That order expired in December 2022, just 10 months before the shooting spree.

Stevenson said forensic and ballistics analysis, along with post-mortem reports, will determine how the firearms were used.