2 of 4 dead in eastern Canada shooting are officers, police say

Canadian police said Friday that two of the four people killed in a shooting in the eastern city of Fredericton are police officers.

Fredericton police said one suspect is in custody and that they are not releasing the names of the slain officers yet.

The shooting happened in an apartment complex.

David MacCoubrey, who lives in Fredericton, said he heard about 20 shots and hid on his kitchen floor

“I’m on my floor,” he said in a phone interview. “The cops have come through my place. They have searched all the apartments in the building. It sounded like it started in the courtyard area.”

He said he awoke in his apartment on Brookside Drive around 7 a.m. local time to the sound of three gunshots about 30 feet from his bed.

MacCoubrey said his apartment complex has four buildings in a square, and that it sounded like the shots were coming from the middle of the complex.

He said police have been searching the buildings and that he’s been sitting away from windows.

“It’s not something that happens here regularly,” he said.

In 2014, a shooting in Moncton left three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers dead and two wounded.

Fredericton has a population of about 58,000 and is located just northeast of Maine.

New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant tweeted his condolences to the victims and their families. “During this difficult time, our thoughts are also with the courageous women and men on the front lines working to keep us safe,” he said.

Bill Henwood, a funeral director at York Funeral Home, whose business is located inside the cordoned-off area on Brookside Drive, said the lockdown occurred before anybody got to work.

Henwood said people are sitting in their cars or just standing near the blockade of police and fire vehicles “hanging tight and waiting for word” on what comes next.

“All the businesses even on the outside of the lockdown area have their lobbies and their business areas closed. They aren’t letting customers in at the moment,” he said.

Henwood said the situation is a shock.

“It’s not something that we expect in Fredericton to wake up and hear about. To see that there’s actually fatalities is pretty extraordinary for this area. It doesn’t normally happen.”

UPDATES:

7 a.m.: This article was updated with a police report that two of the dead were police officers.

This article was originally published at 5:05 a.m.