Ingersoll, in Canada’s Ontario province, is located approximately eighty-five miles from the American border and one-hundred-twenty miles west of Buffalo, New York. Known for its cheese export industry, the small town of about 13,000 people is a quiet, friendly community which had few instances of major crimes– until a late summer evening in 1991.

Constable Scott Rossiter was a familiar face in Ingersoll. Although he had been on the town’s police force for only eighteen months, he had quickly endeared himself to the community. The thirty-year-old lawman was respected and trusted by residents.

As he was patrolling Ingersoll on the evening of September 19, 1991, Constable Rossiter radioed he was going to question a man riding a bicycle.

Approximately fifty yards from the police station, a struggle ensued in which the assailant wrestled the Constable’s gun from him and shot him. The wounded officer was rushed to the hospital but died shortly after midnight. His gun was never found.

Thirty-two years after Constable Rossiter’s killing, the Ingersoll Police Department is still burdened with an unsolved murder. The open case, however, is not the murder of their fallen brethren: it is instead the murder of the man they believed to have killed the Constable.

Constable Scott Rossiter

Thirty-three-year-old David O’Neil was identified as the killer of Constable Scott Rossiter. O’Neil was a lifelong resident of Ingersoll who worked as a motorcycle repairman and mechanic. He was also a member of a motorcycle gang believed to be involved in small crimes.

On January 13, 1992, O’Neil’s remains were found in a shallow grave approximately fifty miles from Ingersoll. Shot several times in the head, he had been killed in a similar manner to Constable Rossiter.

O’Neil is believed to have been killed by fellow bikers to keep him from potentially telling police of the gang’s criminal activities in the hopes of his receiving a lighter sentence for the murder of the Constable.

No arrests have been made in the murder of suspected Constable killer David O’Neil.

David O’Neil

Constable Scott Rossiter left behind his wife, Penni, and two children, five-year-old Joshua and one-year-old Erin.

Her husband’s murder was the second tragedy endured by Penni. The couple’s first born child, Benjamin, had died of cancer in 1984 at only three-months-old.

The Rossiter Family

A member of my Facebook group lived in Ingersoll at the time of Constable Rossiter’s murder. She says a dance was held at her high school that evening and everyone was put into lockdown after news of the shooting.

The member also says the paramedic who took the call about Constable Rossiter’s shooting was a close relative of her best friend.

The Constable’s Killing Affects the Community

A road in Ingersoll is named in honor of Constable Scott Rossiter as is a bridge near Ingersoll.

The photographs were taken and supplied by the Facebook group member.

Tributes to Constable Rossiter 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/153477156/scott-wilfred_david-rossiter

SOURCES:

• Brandon Sun (Manitoba, Canada)
• Ontario Police Memorial Foundation
• Toronto Star