How did a mild-mannered devout man end up in Ontario’s courthouse shootout?

Mystery still surrounds the reason why a reputed drug dealer walked into the courthouse in Brampton, Ont., and got into a deadly shootout with police.

Neighbours and acquaintances of Charnjit "Sonny" Bassi said the 45-year-old Brampton man was quiet, decent and helpful, as well as recently religious, the Toronto Sun reported.

Bassi, who had a criminal record dating back 15 years, was killed in the lobby of the Brampton courthouse Friday morning in an exchange of gunfire that wounded a police officer in the stomach.

Police said Bassi was known by police to be heavily involved in the drug trade, the Sun said, but his previous run-ins with the law were not drug related. He'd been previously charged with aggravated assault and credit-card fraud, the Toronto Star reported.

Bassi apparently had no scheduled court appearances the day he walked into the building.

[ Related: Police officer Michael Klarenbeek shot at Brampton, Ont. courthouse in stable condition ]

Sources told the Sun it's believed he may have been targeting someone inside the courthouse, and there is concern he may not have been acting alone.

“Police are really wondering if others aren’t involved," one source told the Sun. "For one man to try to penetrate a courthouse to shoot someone with the security involved, it’s too crazy."

Some who knew Bassi said they can't understand how someone so mild-mannered could end up in a gunfight with police. Longtime friends told the Globe and Mail he had become more devoted to his Sikh faith in the last 18 months.

“I don’t know what happened or why," Jaswinder Khosa, a friend of Bassi since they met in high school, told the Globe. "I don’t know how he ended up that way. It’s a very sad thing."

Khosa said he and Bassi met every few weeks. Bassi said he missed his ex-wife and daughter and talked a lot about religion. Though he was saddened by his divorce, he was not angry or aggravated, Khosa said. The view was echoed by other friends.

“I was surprised to hear that he’d shoot somebody, all my friends are saying the same thing,” Amarjit Sangha, who knew Bassi for more than 20 years, told the Globe. “I’ve never seen him angry or I’ve never seen him swearing at somebody.”

[ Related: Unlikely 'angel' at courthouse helped save officer’s life ]

A next-door neighbour who identified himself only as Roop, called Bassi a "gentle soul," whose actions are inexplicable.

“I took it hard, so did my wife,” he told the Sun. “We’re starting to get used to the idea that he’s not here anymore.”

Friends told the Star that Bassi emigrated from India in 1986 and lived with his family until he married in the early 1990s. The arranged marriage ended quickly and he remarried, but that union ended in divorce in 2012, though he apparently remained on good terms with his ex-wife.

Bassi moved in with his elderly mother, taking her to cancer treatments and to temple, the Star said.

Witnesses told the media a man tried to gain entrance to the building via the lawyers' entrance, bypassing the security check and metal detector used by the public. The shooting started apparently when an officer directed him to the public line.

Veteran Const. Mike Klarenbeek was hit in the stomach but was out of intensive care, alert and talking, the Star said.

Bassi's friends quashed speculation he may have wanted to commit "suicide by cop," saying he was not suicidal. Some are upset that after the shooting Bassi was left lying face down in handcuffs until paramedics arrived.

“They should have tried to save him,” friend Kelly Gill told the Star. “Then we’d have some answers now.”