International
A manhunt for a gunman suspected of killing three Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers and wounding two others passed the 12-hour mark in a rare case of gun violence in Canada.
A large section of the usually peaceful Moncton, a city of 70,000 people in New Brunswick, remained under virtual siege, as authorities searched for a man carrying a rifle and wearing camouflage clothes, Canadian police said on Wednesday.
The RCMP said on Twitter that it was looking for 24-year-old Justin Bourque of Moncton. The police force tweeted an image of a suspect wearing military camouflage and wielding two guns. They urged residents to stay inside and lock their doors. Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United States.
"Three RCMP members have been killed," RCMP spokesman Paul Greene said in an emailed statement. "Two RCMP members were taken to hospital with what are believed to be non-life threatening injuries. The shooter remains at large."
In an interview with CBC News, Greene said the officers were shot in the early evening after responding to reports of a man wearing camouflage clothing and carrying guns.
Police released a map of a large portion of the northwest section of the city, including a heavily wooded area, where they wanted people to remain inside with their doors locked. They warned people to expect roadblocks and traffic disruptions.
Schools and government offices were closed, and the city pulled its buses off the roads. Mail delivery was also suspended.
RCMP officer Damien Theriault broke down in tears at a media briefing as he spoke of the deaths of his three colleagues late Wednesday night.
"We are still actively looking for the shooter," Theriault said. "He is believed to still be in the Pinehurst subdivision area of Moncton. We are urging people in that area to stay inside and lock their doors and for people to stay away from that area."
Daniel St. Louis, a commercial photographer in Moncton, was among the first on the scene Wednesday around 8:30 p.m. when he came across two police vehicles on different streets with blood visible inside.
One of the vehicles, a marked police cruiser, was surrounded by shattered glass. The other, an unmarked SUV with its lights still on and the driver's side door left open, had several bullet holes through its front windshield.
The deaths of the three officers prompted an outpouring of grief on social media, with New Brunswick Premier David Alward and Federal Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney both saying they were shocked by the news.
Bourque also apparently took to Facebook, Canadian media reported Wednesday. A web user believed to be the suspect posted lyrics from the U.S. metal band Megadeth's song “Hook in My Mouth.” “Make a person disappear, and no one will ever miss you,” the lyrics state. In the days before the shootings, the Facebook user also published pro-gun and anti-law-enforcement posts on his account.
Such violence is rare in Canada, particularly on the East Coast. Four RCMP officers were shot and killed in the western province of Alberta in 2005 in the deadliest attack on Canadian police officers in 120 years. They had been investigating a farm in the hamlet of Mayerthrope when a man shot them before he was killed.
Last year there were only 543 homicides reported in all of Canada, a nation of 35 million. Just six of those took place in New Brunswick. In the United States, there were 660 homicides in the city of Los Angeles alone in the same time frame.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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