[
B.C. RCMP say three people are dead following an overnight incident in a Maple Ridge residential area where police were called earlier in the day for a “neighbourhood dispute.”
Officers from Ridge Meadows RCMP were first called to the 11800 block of 239th Street in Maple Ridge at about 6:40 p.m. Wednesday when a dispute was reported to them, where they spoke with “several individuals” but did not make any arrests.
Hours later, just before 11 p.m., the Maple Ridge Fire Department reported a vehicle fire and a “break and enter in progress” at the same address.
Mounties say subsequent callers reported shots being fired there.
When officers arrived, they found two vehicles and the attached garage on fire, and two people dead inside the home.
A suburban community in Maple Ridge, B.C. is in shock after first responders found three bodies Wednesday night after residents reported gunshots and two vehicle fires. RCMP had responded to what police have called a ‘neighbourhood dispute’ in the area hours earlier, and the province’s police watchdog is investigating.
Mounties say the suspect was “believed to be armed with a weapon” in a neighbouring home.
They say police “set up containment,” and with the help of the Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response Team, managed to enter that home — where they found another person dead.
According to the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO), the third person died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury.
The IIO is investigating police actions in the incident. The civilian-led agency is called in anytime a police-involved incident results in death or serious harm in B.C.
Mounties say the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) is investigating the deaths of the two people inside the first home.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, IHIT said the two people found dead in the first residence were identified as a man and woman in their 60s.
“Based on initial investigative steps, investigators believe this to be a targeted and isolated incident, as a result of a dispute between neighbours who were known to each other,” IHIT said.
“There are no outstanding suspects.”
Area typically ‘uneventful,’ says neighbour
Bruce Fairweather was in bed Wednesday night when he says his wife heard what sounded like gunshots. He went outside his home and saw two vehicles on fire.
“Both vehicles were totally engulfed, like big fireballs,” he said.
Andrew Palahicky lives in the neighbourhood and he said he came out of his home around 2:30 a.m. after hearing what he thought was a flashbang. He saw the fire in the nearby home and police with their rifles out, cutting into the garage.
He said he didn’t know the older couple who died well, but saw them around the neighbourhood. He said he went to school with the suspect’s children.
Palahicky said the area is typically “uneventful.”
“This is what I would consider like one of the safest areas in Maple Ridge, so quite the surprise when you’ve got such chaos at night like that,” he told The Canadian Press.
Fairweather agreed the neighbourhood is usually quiet and now he’s left to process the loss of his neighbours.
“I can’t believe they’re not here today. I mean, they were here, talking to her yesterday,” he said. “It’s just kind of mind-boggling, actually.”