FREDERICTON, N.B. - About 50 residents who live in the investigation zone that remains taped off by police in the wake of Friday’s shooting that killed four people, will not be allowed to return home until Monday at the earliest.
Residents in the Brookside Drive area are getting help with temporary accommodations from the Red Cross in the meantime, while copping through feelings of sadness and grief.
On Friday morning 48-year-old Matthew Vincent Raymond of Fredericton shot and killed four people including civilians Bobbie Lee Wright, Donnie Robichaud and two police officers Const. Robb Costello and Const. Sara Burns.
Bill Cartwright is an evacuated resident, he returned home briefly on Saturday to get his pet cat that had been left behind as residents were instructed to get out fast.
“I was at work. My son and girlfriend were in the apartment. There’s bullets going everywhere, people dying. I left work, I tried to get here, tried to get my son,” Cartwright says.
“As a parent it’s probably the worst feeling in the world to know your kids in a building that people are shooting at,” he says.
At least 30 of those evacuated are staying at Willie O’Ree Place and recieving assistance from the Red Cross.
“We don’t know precisely when each and every individual household will be able to return, it certainly depends on the outcome of the investigation and the family members have been certainly appreciative of law enforcement,” said Bill Lawlor from the Canadian Red Cross.
There are signs of appreciation for law enforcement popping up all over the city, even in the area where the shooting occurred and is still very much an active crime scene.
First responder Jerry Hamilton with the Nashwaak Valley Volunteer Fire Department dropped by today to pay his respects, telling CTV Atlantic that it will take a long time for the community to heal.
“It will be years. Years. And it will hurt. But all we can do is remember and honour them,” said
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron.
