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Canadian police hunt suspect after three officers shot dead in Moncton Canadian police continue hunt for gunman who shot dead two mounties
(about 2 hours later)
Canadian police mounted a massive hunt on Thursday for a 24-year-old man armed with high-powered weapons who they suspect shot dead three police officers and wounded two more in the eastern city of Moncton. Canada was in shock on Thursday after a gunman who walked through a quiet suburban neighbourhood dressed in camouflage, a black headband and carrying two high-powered rifles and a bow shot dead three mounties in one of the police force's worst losses of life in decades.
The incident was one of the worst of its kind in Canada, where fatal attacks on police are rare. The small east coast city of Moncton, New Brunwick, went into lockdown as police searched for the suspect, named by the force as 24-year-old Justin Bourque. Bourque was spotted three times early on Thursday morning, police said, but officers were unable to apprehend him and admitted they did not know where he was.
Police cordoned off a large area in the city's northwest and warned residents to stay inside their homes and lock their doors. A large armored police truck entered the area early on Thursday morning and a helicopter hovered overhead. The shooting began on Wednesday evening. Witnesses described seeing Bourque as he walked the streets on mild spring evening. "It was really warm in the house, so we opened up the windows in the family room and there he was going across through the back with this rifle on his shoulder," local politician Joan MacApline-Stiles told CBC Radio.
Schools and government offices were shut in the city of 70,000 in the east coast province of New Brunswick. "I said, 'Oh my God, there he is with camouflage and the headband and a gun' – and it looked like a bow he had with him. And I mean he was just through our backyard.'"
Police told residents not to tweet the locations of officers for fear they could be helping the suspect, who they named as Justin Bourque. He has no previous criminal record. The multiple shootings have shocked a nation that has strict gun laws, relative to the United States. Canada prohibits ownership of certain firearms and requires that restricted weapons be registered.
Police said Bourque had been spotted three times in Moncton since the shootings, most recently just after dawn on Thursday, but was still at large. The shootings – in which two other Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, known as mounties, were wounded – were the first homicides in Moncton, a usually quiet city of 70,000, since 2012. City councillor Dawn Arnold said it had received notes of support from cities throughout North America. "We are not alone," she said. "This will not define us. While it is a temporary challenge, this will not break us. We will recover and we will be stronger."
"This is a very very dangerous situation as we speak … We have not apprehended the individual," said Roger Brown, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in New Brunswick. The top RCMP officer in New Brunswick, Roger Brown, described it as the "darkest day" in the provincial force's history.
"This is like working through your worst nightmare," he told a televised news conference in Moncton. The Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, said in a statement the deaths of the officers would be honoured and remembered.
Police were alerted on Wednesday afternoon by a member of the public who spotted an armed man walking down a residential street. When police arrived, the man moved into a nearby wooded area and opened fire. Three officers were killed and two more were taken to hospital, where they were undergoing surgery on Thursday. As the manhunt for the 24-year-old continued on Thursday morning, the streets of Moncton were eerily quiet and the mood at workplaces sombre. Schools were closed for the day. Many businesses were shuttered and public transit was shut down because of the "potential risk from this person" .
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United States, and the killings have spurred an outpouring of grief on social media. "Naturally there's a very high degree of concern and anxiety over this," Mayor George LeBlanc explained to media.
The last mass killing of police took place in Mayerthorpe in the western province Of Alberta in 2005, when a gunman killed four officers before shooting himself. Those deaths were the most the RCMP had suffered in a single day in 100 years. The manhunt for Bourque began at 7.20pm on Wednesday after the RCMP received a call about a heavily armed man walking through the suburban neighbourhood. One resident, Vanessa Bernatchez, posted a video on Facebook she filmed from her living room window at the moment the gunman opens fire. From where she stood, Bernatchez said it appeared the mountie did not see the shooter until he fired.
Brown said the entire RCMP was in mourning after what he called a horrendous crime. Earlier in the day he visited some relatives of the dead and injured. "They are hurting. There is actually no way to describe the level of hurt," he said. Soon after more police and a tactical team arrived on the scene. Mounties scoured the area looking for the shooter, while warning residents to stay in their homes, lock their doors and even go to their basements as a precaution.
Media in Moncton published a photograph of a man in camouflage clothing and a black headband carrying a rifle. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the picture. Colleen Maguire hurried home to be with her teenage daughter Kate. And, after reading on social media that the suspect had been spotted nearby, they grabbed blankets and pillows and headed to their basement. "What a way to spend a night, hiding from a madman."
A Facebook page purporting to belong to the shooter was filled with posts critical of the police and those who back gun control. On Thursday morning, mother and daughter remained in their apartment. A graphic designer, Maguire said she was afraid to work at home because her computer was next to a window. "I'm so paranoid to walk through the house, there's so many windows. I know that seems excessive but apparently there are some people still hiding in their basements."
City officials said there had been no murders in Moncton in all of 2013, and none had been recorded this year until Wednesday. Just before the shootings began, residents received what appeared to be an ominous warning from Bourque himself. The last post on his Facebook page displays the lyrics of a song by the heavy metal band Megadeath who sing of a "little man with a big eraser, changing history".
Lorraine Roy, 76, lives with her husband in an apartment in the area under lockdown. She told Reuters by phone: "We heard the helicopters all night and kept our lights off all night. We are on the third floor and did not want to take any chances if someone pointed a gun this way." There was a sense among residents on Thursday that Moncton will be forever changed by this event.
She said she was shocked by the events because "Moncton is a very quiet and safe place, especially this area. The only place where there are problems is around the pubs downtown sometimes." "We will never feel the same about our safe neighbourhoods," city councillor Brian Hicks said.
"[I'm] at a loss for words this morning." fellow councillor Paul Pellerin said. "As a representative of Moncton, I would have never would have imagined such a tragedy happening here."
For some the shootings brought back the horror of another ruthless murder that rocked the city 40 years ago, when two officers, Corporal Aurele Bourgeois and Constable Michael O'Leary, were abducted and handcuffed to a tree as two open graves were dug then each shot in the head.
"I remember the absolute dark pall it put over the city," wrote local blogger and columnist Brian Cormier said. "Tonight has eclipsed that horror."
As the hunt for Bourque stretched into a second day, additional police resources from across New Brunswick and the neighbouring province of Prince Edward Island were in Moncton to assist the RCMP.
In an emotional interview with media, RCMP Constable Damien Theriault broke down as he spoke of the loss of "three friends". Despite the tragedy, Theriault said Moncton officers were focused on capturing their killer. "We need to pull together and locate this individual as quickly as possible to ensure everyone's safety. We are professionals and we have a job to do right now. We will have time to grieve after."
Four RCMP officers were killed in March 2005 by a gunman on a farm in the province of Alberta. The shootings at Mayerthorpe, a small town, represented the RCMP's worst single-day loss of life in more than 100 years.