American Woman Arrested in Canadian Mall Mass-Murder Plot
Saturday, 14 Feb 2015 02:15 PM
TORONTO — Canadian police have foiled a plot by three suspects who were planning to go to a mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and kill as many people as they could before committing suicide on Valentine's Day, police said Saturday.
One of the suspects fatally shot himself as police moved in to arrest him and an American suspect confessed to the plot when she was arrested at the Halifax airport, a senior police official told The Associated Press.
Police and Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the plot was not related to terrorism.
"This appeared to be a group of murderous misfits," MacKay said Saturday. "The attack does not appear to have been culturally motivated, therefore not linked to terrorism."
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that friends Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, 23, of Geneva, Illinois, and Randall Steven Shepherd, 20, of Nova Scotia, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer Brian Brennan said the suspects planned to go to the Halifax Shopping Center and kill as many people as they could on Saturday, Valentine's Day, before taking their own lives.
He told a news conference that police found three long-barrel rifles in the home of a third suspect, a 19-year-old who died before he could be arrested. He did not elaborate on how the suspect died.
But a senior police official told The Associated Press that the 19-year-old male fatally shot himself after police surrounded his home in Halifax suburb of Timberlea.
The American woman was arrested at the Halifax airport and confessed to the plot, the official said, adding that she had prepared a number of pronouncements to be tweeted after her death. Shepard was also arrested at the airport as he waited for his friend's arrival.
The suspects used a chat stream and were apparently obsessed with death and had many photos of mass killings, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publically.
Police acted quickly after receiving information from the public on the Crime Stoppers tip line. The two suspects are due in court on Tuesday.
MacKay credited police for their quick action.
At the home of the male suspect, police saw two people leave the house who they determined were the 19-year-old's parents and pulled them over on a traffic check. They then called the suspect.
The man told police that he didn't have any guns, but shot himself as he was on his way out of the house, the official told the AP.
The official said police worked with Canadian border officials to find the female suspect on her flight as she was making her way from Chicago.
Police said Friday they first received information a day earlier about a potentially significant weapons-related threat. Police initially said a 17-year-old Nova Scotia teen was also involved, but released him overnight without filing charges against him because of lack of evidence. Police said the investigation was continuing.
The police official said the 17-year-old was under investigation for threatening to shoot up a high school and had an outstanding warrant.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney applauded the work of police in Canada and Geneva, Illinois, and well as border officials in a statement. The Geneva police department said in a statement they were contacted by Canadian police and had no contact with the American woman before her arrest.
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