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Police Hunt Killer of Canadian Officers Police Hunt for Killer of Canadian Police Officers
(about 9 hours later)
OTTAWA — Residents remained barricaded in their homes and schools and businesses were closed in Moncton, New Brunswick, on Thursday as the hunt continued for a man believed to be responsible for killing three police officers and wounding two others. OTTAWA — A full day after a heavily armed gunman killed three police officers and wounded two others, Moncton, New Brunswick, largely remained under siege on Thursday night.
The three members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were shot and killed after responding to an emergency call about a man seen wearing military-style camouflage clothing and carrying two rifles near woods adjacent to a subdivision. As the police hunted for the person suspected of committing the killings, schools and most stores were closed, offices remained shut, buses were taken off the generally deserted streets, and mail delivery was suspended. In the neighborhood where the shooting occurred Wednesday evening, fearful residents, following police orders, remained in their homes.
Witnesses told several TV broadcasters that the police officers had apparently been ambushed. No information about the three dead officers had been released as of Thursday morning. A hospital spokesman said the two injured officers were in stable condition and their injuries were not life-threatening. Three members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were fatally shot, in what many witnesses characterized as an ambush, after responding to an emergency call about a man seen wearing military-style camouflage clothing and carrying two rifles near the woods adjacent to a subdivision.
The police said they were looking for Justin Bourque, 24, who lives in Moncton, a city of 69,000. The police released a photo taken Wednesday evening that showed a man they said was Mr. Bourque carrying two rifles in the city’s northwest. At a news conference on Thursday, Roger Brown, the local commanding officer of the mounted police, said the suspect was sighted near a Costco store early Thursday morning. But efforts to apprehend him were unsuccessful. For a city of 69,000 where serious crime does not usually get much worse than, say, burglary or assault, the shooting was particularly shocking.
Vanessa Bernatchez, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from her basement, said she had tapped on a window in a vain attempt to warn the first officer on the scene that the gunman had been hiding behind her house. In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics were available, Moncton had no murders, and there were just four homicides in all of New Brunswick.
The motive for the attack is unclear, although a Facebook account apparently belonging to Mr. Bourque contained some postings expressing antipolice sentiments. The killings were a shock in Moncton, where serious crimes are rare. Late Wednesday night, Constable Damien Theriault, a spokesman for the mounted police, appeared upset before cutting short a televised news briefing. “Never in my darkest dreams did I ever think that we would be facing what we’re facing today in Moncton,” Mayor George LeBlanc told reporters on Thursday. “If this can happen in Moncton, it can happen anywhere.”
“We are professionals,” Constable Theriault said in French while struggling to hold back tears. “We will ensure the security of the public. We are going to do that.” At that point he abruptly walked away. Mounties from other regions and members of other police forces, backed by helicopters, black armored vehicles and aircraft, streamed into Moncton to join the hunt for the suspect, Justin Bourque, a 24-year-old resident.
Reinforcements from police detachments throughout New Brunswick and two other Canadian provinces have continued to pour into Moncton. While the Mounties are a national police force, they provide rural and municipal policing under contract in many parts of Canada. The police released a photograph taken Wednesday evening that showed a man they said was Mr. Bourque carrying two rifles, or possibly a rifle and a shotgun, in the northwest part of the city. The authorities did not say how they identified him.
A police helicopter with thermal-imaging cameras was searching the city. At least two armored cars were borrowed by the mounted police to transport heavily armed tactical team members. Television images have shown several cars and police vehicles with bullet holes and shattered windows in the residential area. The police said Mr. Bourque had previously worked at a local Walmart, and had no known criminal history.
The shooting took place on what was one of the first summerlike evenings in the area. Residents said they dropped their hoses and left their lawnmowers behind to seek shelter after learning that the noises they heard were gunfire. Other details about him remained scarce on Thursday. A Facebook account apparently belonging to Mr. Bourque contained some postings expressing antipolice sentiments, and others condemning gun laws.
At the request of the police, the CBC took the unusual step of asking Moncton residents to lock themselves in their houses during Wednesday evening’s nationwide broadcast of the Stanley Cup hockey finals. There were also several images of guns. A rambling poem posted shortly before the shootings concludes: “I believe my kingdom will come.”
In March 2005, five Mounties were ambushed and killed in an Alberta barn during a raid on a site suspected of being used for growing marijuana. Assistant Commissioner Roger Brown, the commander of the mounted police in New Brunswick, told a news conference that Mr. Bourque had been seen three times since the killings, most recently near a Costco store Thursday morning. But he said the need to protect police officers and the public thwarted attempts to apprehend him.
Like many top Mountie officials during news media appearances since the shooting, Commissioner Brown appeared on the verge of tears. Although the vast force extends across the country and its units can be involved in wide-ranging investigations, Mounties also perform local police duties in places like Moncton.
Residents in the part of the city that has been locked down by the police have, for the most part, sheltered in basements. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showed a photograph of young children who were placed in an empty bathtub in a windowless room for added protection.
Conrad Gagnon, 53, said by telephone that the gunman had passed his house shortly before he heard gunshots on Wednesday.
“He looked like he was meditating or something or like he was stoned,” Mr. Gagnon said. He said the gunman ignored a large number of people, including children, out on the street and in a park.
Between the anxiety over the killer’s being at large and the noise of police helicopters, Mr. Gagnon said he was unable to rest and hoped that the gunman would be captured soon. “I cannot believe that they cannot find him in such a little place like this,” he said.
Throughout the day, hopes were raised that Mr. Bourque had been cornered when heavily armed police surrounded a home, and later a commercial building. Both proved to be false leads.
The police still have not identified the three dead officers. One of the two wounded officers was released from a hospital on Thursday; the other underwent surgery for wounds that were described as not life-threatening.