Moncton, Canada, in shock as chilling portrait of Mounties' killer emerges
Man accused of slaying Mounties was a gun-obsessed conspiracy theorist
A chilling portrait of a man obsessed with guns and anti-government rhetoric began to emerge as people in an eastern Canadian city struggled to reconcile the knowledge the person charged with murdering three Mounties was the same one who had lived quietly among them.
Justin Bourque, 24, was caught and charged with three murders and two attempted murders on Friday, ending a 30-hour manhunt that closed schools, forced residents to hide at home and paralysed Moncton, New Brunswick, with fear. He appeared briefly in court after he was charged with the second deadliest attack on the Royal Canadian Mountain Police in nearly 130 years.
As neighbours of his parents and others who knew Bourque spoke of a quiet man from a well-liked, religious Catholic family that home-schooled its children, posts on social networks told a different tale - a litany of paranoid conspiracies that included statements on Russia being a threat to Canada and animosity towards authority.
I just want to know what was going through his head
A friend, Trever Finck, said he noticed changes in Bourque's behaviour over the last year, particularly after he created a new Facebook page for himself in February and filled it with anti-police messages and conspiracy theories.
His profile picture shows him standing in the woods with a friend, wearing camouflage gear and clutching a shotgun. What appear to be dozens of spent shell casings lie at their feet.
"I just want to know what was going through his head," Finck said.
Church administrator Dianne LeBlanc said it had been many years since she had seen Bourque, who moved out of the family home about 18 months ago. But his parents never missed a Sunday service at Christ the King church, she said. They often arrived with at least a couple of their grown children in tow.