A resident of a apartment complex in Lethbridge, Alta., says she was shocked by a heavy police presence earlier this week after investigators searched a unit linked to the suspect in Monday’s deadly shooting in Montreal.
The search came a day after a man who lived in the complex was linked to the midday shooting that left a Montreal police officer and a bystander dead.
Lethbridge police searched a unit on LeMoyne Crescent in West Lethbridge for hours Tuesday as part of the investigation.
Neighbour Anika Medema said she left home before officers arrived and returned to find several police vehicles.
“There were police everywhere, like a bomb squad,” she told Global News on Thursday.
Medema said she did not know the accused resident, identified as 25-year-old Seth Scott Hatfield, who was a student at the University of Lethbridge.
“He wasn’t very approachable. Kind of kept to himself really,” Medema said.
As more details about the case emerge, the woman said it is unsettling to have lived so close to the suspect.
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“Walking here alone sometimes, it’s kind of scary, you know. Cause if he was still here, what could have happened?” she said.
She said the investigation is a reminder that people often know little about those living nearby.
“You don’t really know your neighbour that well, so anything could be happening,” she said.
Police cleared the complex late Tuesday night, and the vehicles and caution tape have since been removed.
Lethbridge police have released few details about the search, saying only that officers were conducting a high-risk search and assisting Quebec authorities with the investigation.
This comes as a specialized national security unit within the RCMP announced Thursday that it opened an investigation into ideologically motivated violent extremism.
The RCMP said branches of its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Eastern Canada and in the northwest region are working together on a case that is separate from the murder investigation led by Quebec provincial police.
These RCMP enforcement teams target terrorist groups or people who threaten national security.
While neither the RCMP nor Quebec’s provincial police have publicly released details about the suspected motive behind Monday’s shooting, Global News has reviewed a manifesto written by the alleged gunman that expresses hatred toward women and calls for violence against police and high-powered figures like bankers, CEOs, and those working in the pornography industry.
The alleged gunman exchanged gunfire with police outside a hotel in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges district, across from the Montreal offices for Aylo, owner of adult entertainment brands including Pornhub.
Provincial police are leading the criminal investigation into the shooting. The province’s independent police watchdog is examining the officers’ intervention, as required whenever someone dies during a police operation.
A large group of people gathered in Côte-des-Neiges on Thursday evening to protest against so-called incel ideology.
Incel stands for “involuntary celibate,” a term for an internet subculture dominated largely by men who blame women and social structures for their lack of sexual or romantic relationships.
The protest began at the memorial for the 1989 Polytechnique massacre during which a gunman motivated by a hatred for feminism killed 14 women at an engineering university in Montreal.
The demonstration was intended to spark a broader conversation about misogyny, violence against women and the online radicalization of some young men.
Organizers said they chose to gather at the Polytechnique memorial because they believe Monday’s shooting serves as a reminder that violence fuelled by hatred of women remains a threat.
“Monday’s shooting could have been another Polytechnique,” said activist Céleste Trianon. “It was pure luck that no women were killed.”
–with files from The Canadian Press