The man behind a fatal shooting in an eastern Canada city has been charged with four counts of first degree murder, police said today.
Authorities identified the gunman as Matthew Vincent Raymond, 48, who opened fire in the sleepy city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, yesterday, killing four people including two officers.
Mr Raymond, who was injured and hospitalised, was charged with four premeditated homicides, though police did not provide details of his motives.
He will remain in custody as he awaits a court appearance on 27 August, Fredericton police said in a statement.
Law enforcement officials released the names of the two civilians killed in the shooting: Donald Adam Robichaud, 42, and Bobbie Lee Wright, 32.
Yesterday authorities in the provincial capital - about 75kms from the border between Canada and the US state of Maine - had identified the two officers killed as Lawrence Robert Costello, 45, and Sara Mae Helen Burns, 43.
The incident sparked panic in the city as Canada grapples with rising gun violence, with some calling for a handgun ban.
The mass shooting is the second in the province in recent years, and comes only weeks after a man opened fire on 22 July in a bustling Toronto district, killing an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl while wounding 13 other people.
In 2014, three federal police officers were killed and two more were injured after responding to an emergency call about an armed man roaming a residential neighbourhood of nearby Moncton, New Brunswick.
A 28-hour manhunt ensued before police caught up to the suspect and arrested him, in what was described as the second-deadliest attack on Canadian police since four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were ambushed on an Alberta farm in 2005.
