Man not criminally responsible in B.C. death

A man accused in a deadly shooting and aggravated assault last year in a church in British Columbia's southern Interior has been found not criminally responsible for the attacks.

A judge-alone trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Salmon Arm issued the decision Wednesday during a one-day trial for Matrix Gathergood.

He was charged after 78-year-old church elder Gordon Parmenter was shot to death when a gunman burst in during a service at the Church of Christ in Salmon Arm on April 14, 2019.

A second parishioner survived a shot in the leg.

The judge accepted testimony from a psychiatrist that Gathergood, who's in his mid-20s, was paranoid, suffering from schizophrenia, and irrationally believed Parmenter was a mortal danger to him.

The decision means Gathergood will remain at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam pending regular reviews. (CKIZ)