Business owners, residents react to 'scary' Salisbury, N.B., shooting

A day after a shooting on Main Street in Salisbury, N.B., some area residents were rattled, while others weren’t concerned at all.

Jim Crossman, who was working across the street Monday afternoon before the shooting took place, said the whole incident is unsettling.

“It’s a little scary that you have people doing that thing close to home,” said Crossman on Tuesday. “I'm originally from Toronto, so I'm used to hearing about things like this, so I don't know if it affects me as it does for more local people that have been here their whole life. Still scary.”

Rhonda Coughlan works at a convenience store near where the shooting took place.

She was surprised to get the alert.

“It's a quiet, good neighbourhood,” she said.

Coughlan wasn’t working at the time, but was glad to hear her colleague wasn’t hurt.

“One of my friends called to see if I was working. I wasn’t, but I was concerned for the girl who was working. We just waited to hear anything,” said Coughlan.

Police first responded to a report of a shooting on Main Street around 7 p.m.

A 48-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound was taken to hospital with what were believed to be non-life-threatening injuries.

The RCMP sent an Alert Ready message around 8:15 p.m. saying an armed individual was at large in the Salisbury or Moncton areas.

The two youths in connection with the investigation were later located and arrested on Grub Road in Salisbury without incident.

The Alert Ready message for the Salisbury and Moncton area ended just after midnight.

According to police, the subject of the alert message was likely driving a silver Ford F150 which was covered in mud and may have had Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958.

No description or information of the suspect was available for the public.

As of Tuesday evening, police were still looking for the stolen Ford pickup truck.

Wright’s Country Bakery owner Chris Wright lives near where the shooting took place, but said he didn’t hear a thing.

He believes it was a random act and isn't concerned at all about the incident.

“I don't find that they are frequent enough. I've been in the Village of Salisbury my whole life, born and raised, parents has a business here, this is not the first time,” said Wright.

Coughlan felt the same way.

“I think anytime anything like this happens you should be concerned, but I think it was probably a random act,” said Coughlan.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Hans Ouellette explained why the emergency alert was issued.

“The RCMP would only issue an emergency alert in situations of the utmost seriousness, when there is credible, verified information of a direct, what we call a direct or imminent threat, to people's lives or public safety,” said Ouellette.

The Town of Salisbury turned down a request for an interview from the mayor, but CAO Austin Henderson said in a statement they were “disheartened” to receive Monday night’s alert.

“We appreciate the quick work of the RCMP to address the situation and for their detailed and prompt communication to residents as the situation unfolded,” said Austin in the statement. While the RCMP continue their investigation, we have nothing further to comment on at this time.”

Austin said the municipality will wait for further updates from the police.

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