Police thwart mall shooting plot by ‘misfits’
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 said.
Police and Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the plot was not related to terrorism. “This appeared to be a group of murderous misfits that were ... prepared to wreak havoc and mayhem on our community,” MacKay said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that friends Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, 23, of Geneva, Ill., 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 said at a news conference that police found three long-barreled rifles in the home of a third suspect, a 19-year-old who died before he could be arrested. A senior police official said the man fatally shot himself early Friday after police surrounded his home in the Halifax suburb of Timberlea.
The American woman was arrested as she arrived 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 early Friday at the airport, where he went to meet his friend, police said.
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.
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.
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 in Geneva, about 35 miles west of Chicago, searched Souvannarath’s home on Friday night and seized several items. Geneva Police Cmdr. Julie Nash refused to describe the items.