At least four people, including two police officers, have been killed in an early morning shooting in Canada.
Police in Fredericton, New Brunswick responded to the shooting in a residential neighborhood at around 7am on Friday, taking one suspect into custody after an intensive emergency response.
Two of the fatalities were Fredericton Police officers, officials said. No names have been released pending notification of the families.
It is unknown how many were non-fatally injured in the shooting. Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital ‘is on high alert and prepared to receive any victims of this shooting’, according to parent company Horizon Health.
Fredericton is a city of roughly 58,000 about 75 miles from the Maine border.
Emergency vehicles are seen at the Brookside Drive area in Fredericton, Canada on Friday
Police said Brookside Drive between Main Street and Ring Road will remain closed ‘for the foreseeable future’ to work the investigation.
David MacCoubrey, who lives on Brookside Drive, said that he woke up in his apartment at around 7am local time to the sound of three gunshots about 30 feet away from his bed.
MacCoubrey said more than 15 other gunshots were subsequently fired between that time and around 8.30am.
He says his apartment complex has four buildings in a square, and it sounded like the shots were coming from the middle of the complex.
MacCoubrey said police have been searching the complex and he has been sitting on the floor of his home away from windows.
‘It’s not something that happens here regularly,’ he said.
The shooting is believed to have taken place in or around this apartment complex
Travis Hrubeniuk said his fiancee had just left for work at around 7.45am when he began hearing a steady stream of sirens.
Hrubeniuk said residents were advised to stay inside with their doors locked. The quiet residential neighborhood, which has houses, grocery stores, a church and an elementary school, is the last place Hrubeniuk said he expected to encounter a dangerous situation.
‘This is the first time I’ve even heard of any serious crime or violent crime in this city,’ he said.
Another area resident, Robert DiDiodato, told the CBC that he heard sounds like a ‘firecracker’ at around 7am.
‘With the tempo, it might’ve been a gunshot,’ he said. ‘It was sort of like a pop, pop, pop, pop.’
He heard similar sounds about five minutes later, near his home, he said.
At about 8.45am, police said that they had one suspect in custody. But officials warned that the incident was ‘still active’ and urged residents to stay inside and lock their doors.
‘Please stay away from the area. Stay inside, lock your doors. Do not disclose police locations on [social media]. Wait for updates from police,’ the Fredericton Fire Department said on Twitter.
Emergency crews are seen responding to a shooting on Friday morning in Fredericton
In 2014, another mass shooting in New Brunswick led to the deaths of three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and the wounding of two more in Moncton.
At the time, the incident was one of the worst of its kind in Canada, where gun laws are stricter than they are in the United States and deadly attacks on police are rare.
However, in recent years, Canada has seen a dramatic uptick in high-profile shootings.
Last month, a gunman walked down a busy Toronto street, killing two people and wounding 13 before turning his gun on himself.
On Thursday, Ontario pledged more money for police and to keep suspects behind bars while they await trial on gun crimes charges, as the Canadian province grapples with rising shootings involving domestically obtained weapons.
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