Part of a quiet neighbourhood in Maple Ridge, B.C., is blocked off by police tape as RCMP investigate what they say was a dispute between neighbours that culminated in a murder-suicide.
Police cordoned off the area of the violent scene that saw two vehicles set ablaze and a police Emergency Response Team descend upon a home where a suspect was found dead.
Bruce Fairweather lives nearby and says his wife and others in the neighbourhood heard what sounded like gunshots just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday and when he went outside he saw two vehicles "totally engulfed" in flames.
RCMP say two people inside the home were found dead and the suspect was believed to be inside a neighbouring home armed with a weapon, but when the emergency response team went in, the man was found dead.
Police said they were called to the same home hours earlier for a neighbourhood dispute and while officers spoke to several people, no arrests were made.
Fairweather says he often spoke to the female victim when she walked her dog, and she had indicated they had been in a dispute with the suspect for years, complaining of threats that had been reported to police multiple times.
"He would make rude obscene gestures to them, stuff like that," Fairweather said Thursday. "It's shocking that there's something like this happening. You see it in the movies, but you don't expect it to be in your own neighbourhood, right?"
British Columbia's police watchdog has been called because of the RCMP's earlier interactions with the three to determine if police actions or inactions may have prevented the deaths.
Spokeswoman Rebecca Whalen with the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. says RCMP reported that two people were dead before officers arrived.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
