Quebec election shooting suspect identified (VIDEO)
Police confirmed the identity of a suspect in Tuesday night’s Quebec election shooter as 62-year-old Richard Henry Bain.
Police confirmed the identity of a suspect in Tuesday night’s Quebec election shooting as 62-year-old Richard Henry Bain.
Bain owns a hunting-outfitting store in Canada’s French-speaking province and lives in the resort town of Mont Tremblant, Reuters reported.
“We don’t reveal the criminal background of someone. But in this case I’m going to tell you this is not a well-known person to police services,” police representative Ian LaFreniere said, according to Reuters.
Bain is to appear in court later today or Thursday to answer to charges after one man died another wounded in Montreal at an election rally.
Newly elected Premier Pauline Marois was about to address celebrating Parti Quebecois supporters after the vote when someone started shooting outside the theater, CBC News said.
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The 48-year-old victim and wounded man, 27, were both audio-visual technicians working at the concert hall.
Witnesses and police dragged one victim into the theater and closed a back door, CBC said, and that’s when someone threw an incendiary device at the building.
“My mind was on, ‘What was going to happen to the people inside?’ The fire was so huge,” witness Martin Bouffard told CBC.
The fire in a back alley was doused.
Police later identified the dead man as Denis Blanchette.
The second shooting victim underwent surgery and is now in stable condition.
Doctors treated a third person, who they released later, for shock.
TV footage appeared to show a disoriented suspect.
He was wearing black clothing, a black ski mask with a blue bathrobe.
The suspect shouted “The English are waking up” in French as police, who won’t confirm the weapon used, led him away.
The Parti Quebecois is the province’s traditional separatist party, routinely pushing for Quebec to vote on independence from Canada.
Marois, whose party won a minority government, refused to admit the shooting was politically motivated.
“I am deeply affected by this but I have to go forward and assume my responsibilities,” she said, according to The Associated Press.
“In spite of this tragedy we must say Quebec is a non-violent society. An act of folly cannot rid us of this reality.”
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