FAMILY CRITICIZES SHOOTING VERDICT
Not criminally responsible in deaths of four
FREDERICTON • Matthew Raymond, the Fredericton man who shot four people, including two police officers, while in the grip of delusions about demons and a pending apocalypse, has been found not criminally responsible.
The jury arrived at the verdict on the fourth day of deliberations following a nine-week trial that explored the dimensions of mental illness and the need for justice in a tragedy that devastated families.
Relatives of the victims in court hugged each other and sobbed after the verdict was announced on Friday. Raymond bowed his head and wiped away tears but said nothing.
Outside the court, Jackie Mclean, widow of Fredericton police Const. Robb Costello, who died in the shooting, said the verdict was not unexpected.
“Obviously the mental health system failed the Raymond family in the first place, and now I feel as though the criminal justice system has failed us,” said Mclean.
Nathan Gorham, lead defence lawyer, said his client is “grief- stricken” by the enormity of his crime. But Gorham said the verdict was the right one considering that Raymond was “very, very ill and was incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of what he was doing.”
“The fact is, Mr. Raymond will remain in custody unless the process decides at some point in time, which could be far off in the future, that he is no longer a threat to the public.”
Raymond, 50, will be held in a psychiatric hospital in northern New Brunswick.
In addition to Costello, 45, who had four children, the other Fredericton police constable who died was Sara Burns, 43, a wife with three children. They were the first officers to arrive at the scene on Aug. 10, 2018, and were shot as they rushed to help two people.
The two on the ground likely were dead when the officers arrived. Bobbie Lee Wright, 32, whose nickname was Bubbles, and Donnie Robichaud, 42, were shot as they packed their car in the parking lot of the apartment complex. The two had just recently started dating.
All four victims were shot at least once in the head. Some were shot multiple times in the body as well as in the head.
Police officers testified that the shots came from the window of Raymond's thirdfloor apartment that was part of the housing complex.
Police said they seized a semi- automatic SKS rifle, a shotgun, about 2,000 of rounds of ammunition and a knife from Raymond's apartment. They also found 22 spent casings and seven spent shotgun shells in two different rooms.
There was never any doubt that Raymond was the shooter. The key question for the jury revolved around his
EVIDENCE REVEALED HIS DEEPENING INVOLVEMENT WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIES, BELIEFS ABOUT END TIMES AND NUMEROLOGY.
mental disorder and whether it rendered him not criminally responsible.
During the trial, evidence taken from Raymond's computer and other material found in his apartment revealed his deepening involvement with conspiracy theories, hoaxes, religious beliefs about end times and numerology.
From 2017 until the shooting in 2018, his mental deterioration was marked by bizarre beliefs about demons masquerading as political leaders and celebrities, about the earth being flat and about a coming apocalypse.
Two psychiatrists who testified told the jury that Raymond had a mental disorder — one said it was schizophrenia and the other said it was a delusional disorder.