Two police officers were among four people killed on Friday in a shooting that sparked panic and a police lockdown in a sleepy eastern Canadian city, as the nation grapples with rising gun violence.
Residents of the Brookside neighborhood of Fredericton, New Brunswick, woke to the sounds of multiple gunshots. Witnesses said they saw the barrel of a rifle or shotgun poking out from the window of a low-rise apartment building and firing into a courtyard, while two bodies lay on the ground nearby, reported AFP.
Heavily-armed police, paramedics and firefighters quickly descended on the scene and a lockdown of the neighborhood was ordered, trapping some early risers in daycare facilities, coffee shops and businesses.
Fredericton Deputy Police Chief Martin Gaudet told reporters the two officers killed were responding to an emergency call about gunshots. They were identified as Lawrence Robert Costello, 45, and Sara Mae Helen Burns, 43.
“Upon arrival [at the apartment building], they observed two civilian victims on the ground. That’s when they [police] were shot,” Gaudet said.
Authorities in the provincial capital, about 75 kilometers from the border between Canada and the US state of Maine, had initially urged people in the neighborhood to stay indoors.
They described an “active incident” on Twitter before confirming the deaths and arrest. The suspect was being treated for “serious injuries” related to the shooting incident, police said.
Gaudet said police entered the shooter’s apartment in the residential area of the city north of downtown, and arrested a 48-year-old man. No other information was provided about the suspect or the events.
The mass shooting is the second in the province in recent years, and comes only weeks after a man opened fire on July 22 in a bustling Toronto district, killing an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl while wounding 13 other people.
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