V-Day shooting-spree plot foiled in Canada

THE ATTACK WAS PLANNED FOR A VENUE WHERE A SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE

MONTREAL: Canadian police have said they had foiled a plot that would have seen an armed duo carry out a shooting spree in the city of Halifax on Valentine’s Day before killing themselves.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Nova Scotia said on late Fridayn that a 19-year-old man from the rural town of Timberlea had plotted with a 23-year-old woman from the US city of Geneva, Illinois to open fire somewhere in Halifax on Saturday.

Two others were also allegedly involved.

They “had access to firearms and it was their intention to go to a public venue in the Halifax region on February 14th with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves,” the RCMP said in a statement.

Police said the Timberlea man was found dead in a home early morning on Friday.

The American woman was arrested shortly after — along with a 20-year-old man — without incident at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Police arrested a fourth suspect, a 17-year-old boy from nearby Cole Harbour, at a home later on Friday.

“It’s a group of individuals that were of the same... mind to commit a heinous event and then take their own lives,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brian Brennan told a news conference.

Brennan said the attack was planned for a venue where a significant loss of life would have been possible, but declined to name an exact location.