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Jeffrey ARENBURG
Classification:
Homicide
Characteristics: Paranoid
schizophrenic
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: August 1,
1995
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth:
October 2,
1951
Victim profile: Brian Smith
(famed sportscaster)
Method of murder:
Shooting
(.22 caliber rifle)
Location: Ottawa,
Canada
Status:
Found not
criminally responsible.
Remanded to mental health center. Released 2006
Jeffrey Arenburg
(October 2, 1951) is a Canadian gunman, who shot and
killed broadcaster Brian Smith in Ottawa on August 1,
1995.
Arenburg, who was paranoid
schizophrenic, had gone to Smith's employer, CJOH,
because he thought the station was broadcasting messages
in his head. Smith was the first broadcast personality
that Arenburg saw and recognized coming out of the
building.
Following the shooting, police found
a list of other Ottawa media personalities in Arenburg's
apartment, and an official at the city's press club
noted that he had previously ejected Arenburg from the
club three times for loudly demanding to see various
people on his list. He had also been turned away from
the Parliament Buildings several times.
Before moving to Ottawa, Arenburg had
been a scallop fisherman in Nova Scotia. He had
physically assaulted a radio station manager in
Bridgewater in 1992, again citing messages being
broadcast in his head.
Arenburg was found guilty of assault
and fined $300 or two weeks in jail in the earlier
incident, but never showed up for his trial. He had
already skipped town and moved to Ottawa; the
authorities in Bridgewater decided that it was not worth
their while to track him down.
Arenburg was found not criminally
responsible in Smith's death, due to his mental
condition. He was remanded to the Oak Ridge Division of
the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre. Smith's murder
led to renewed calls in Canada for strengthening of the
government's gun control legislation.
In 2001, the Ontario Review Board
began to grant Arenburg 72-hour release. He applied for
full conditional release in 2004.
As of June 2005 he had been living in
the Barrie area with his brother since March 2003, and
had recently graduated from a community college.
The Ontario Review Board granted
Arenburg an absolute discharge from the mental health
centre in Penetanguishene in November 2006. According to
CFRA, the board heard that he no longer poses a
significant risk to the community and no longer suffers
from the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.
On November 29, 2007, Arenburg was
arrested after assaulting a U.S. customs officer in
Buffalo, New York at the Peace Bridge International
Crossing. According to officials, Arenburg attempted to
enter the United States on a commercial vehicle as a
passenger and was denied entry due to past criminal
convictions.
Wikipedia.org
Brian Smith's killer jailed after
border guard attacked
U.S. customs officer punched in the
face; widow's fears come true
Andrew Thomson and Gary Dimmock, The
Ottawa Citizen
Monday, December 03, 2007
Jeffrey Arenburg, the
paranoid schizophrenic who shot and
killed a famed Ottawa sportscaster in
1995, is in trouble with the law again
after a U.S. border guard was punched in
the face last week, CTV reported last
night.
Mr. Arenburg used a
.22 calibre rifle to hunt down Brian
Smith, a former NHLer turned CJOH
sportscaster, in the parking lot of the
TV station on Aug. 1, 1995.
Mr. Arenburg was
spared prison and instead sent to a
mental hospital. He was released last
year with no restrictions.
Alana Kainz, Mr.
Smith's widow, has lived in constant
fear that Mr. Arenburg would reoffend.
"I knew it would
happen eventually," Ms. Kainz said
yesterday. "I expected this. I really
did."
According to U.S
border officials, the man they jailed is
named Jeffrey Arenburg, born on Dec. 30,
1956. According to Citizen files, the
man who killed Brian "Smitty" Smith was
born in 1956.
Mr. Arenburg is being
detained in a Buffalo, New York, jail
cell. According to Kevin Corsaro, a U.S.
Customs and Border Protection public
affairs officer, Mr. Arenburg was
flagged after trying to enter the U.S.
aboard a commercial bus.
Mr. Arenburg said he
had planned to shop in the Buffalo area.
Once border guards
ran his name in the computer system,
they realized Mr. Arenburg had been
refused entry in the past because of
criminal convictions. Moments later,
they showed him into an interview room.
According to Mr.
Corsaro, Mr. Arenburg allegedly lost
control and punched a border guard in
the face, leaving him with a cut upper
lip. Mr. Arenburg was quickly subdued
and taken to a jail cell. The officer
was taken to hospital.
Assaulting a federal
officer carries a fine and/or
imprisonment up to one year.
The border guards
will now forward Mr. Arenburg's case to
immigration enforcement officials and he
will appear in bail court as early as
today.
Privacy laws prevent
the details of those convictions from
being released to the public, said Mr.
Corsaro.
Mr. Arenburg is being
detained at the Erie County Holding
Center, a maximum security facility in
downtown Buffalo that houses 680 inmates,
pending criminal prosecution by the U.S.
Attorney's office.
Born in 1956 in the
farming hamlet of Upper Northfield, 100
kilometres southwest of Halifax, Mr.
Arenburg was the fourth of five boys.
His family raised cattle and sold
produce.
Mr. Arenburg, a grade
school dropout, left the family farm and
tried his hand at fishing scallops in
Digby, N.S.
Years later, he
walked into a Nova Scotia radio station
and asked to see the manager. He claimed
the station was sending out a frequency
that broadcast propaganda messages in
his head. He then punched the station
manager.
Three years later, Mr.
Arenburg killed Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith was a pro-athlete
but really gained fame as a legendary
sportscaster in Ottawa at CJOH, now
called CTV.
Mr. Arenburg was sent
to a Penetanguishene mental health
centre in 1997 after being found not
criminally responsible for shooting Mr.
Smith.
Mr. Arenburg had
already been granted a conditional
discharge in May 2004, which required
him to report to the centre once a month,
take a regular urine test, not consume
alcohol or non-medical drugs, not own a
weapon, and live in Barrie with his
brother.
The
Ontario
Review
Board
gave Mr.
Arenburg
an
absolute
discharge
in
November
2006,
meaning
he was
free to
live
where he
wanted
without
restrictions.
The
board
ruled Mr.
Arenburg
no
longer
posed a
significant
risk to
the
community,
had
taken
his
medication
faithfully
for nine
years,
and
hadn't
displayed
any
aggression
or
psychotic
episodes.
He was
no
longer
required
to visit
a
psychiatrist,
though
the
board
heard
that Mr.
Arenburg
had
found a
doctor
in
Barrie
and
realized
his need
for
continued
care.
He was
volunteering
two days
a week
for the
Canadian
Red
Cross,
and
planned
to find
work in
Alberta
and be
closer
to his
daughter.
However,
the
review
board's
final
report
suggested
there
was a
24-per-cent
chance
he would
offend
again
within
10 years
of
release.
The Crown and Mr.
Smith's widow opposed the full discharge,
wondering how the mental health centre
could change its opinion on Mr.
Arenburg's risk level from a similar
hearing in 2005.
"Once he's out of the
system, he's out of the system," Ms.
Kainz, a former Citizen reporter, said
yesterday. "I think the review board has
some questions to answer."
Neither Mr.
Arenburg's brother nor James Lunnie, the
Midland lawyer who handled his review
hearing, could be reached for comment
yesterday.
The Ottawa Citizen 2007
Jeffrey
Arenburg
Jeffrey Arenburg is shown arriving at the Royal Ottawa Hospital under
police guard in a 1995 file photo. (Sun Media/Derek Ruttan)
