{"id":22947,"date":"2025-07-25T11:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22947\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:39:17","slug":"three-dead-after-neighbourhood-dispute-in-maple-ridge-b-c-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22947\/","title":{"rendered":"Three dead after \u2018neighbourhood dispute\u2019 in Maple Ridge, B.C., police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An RCMP officer works in front of a burned out vehicle at the scene of an incident in Maple Ridge B.C., on Thursday.Tijana Martin\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Bruce Fairweather was in bed Wednesday night when he says his wife heard what sounded like gunshots.<\/p>\n

He went outside his home in Maple Ridge, B.C., and saw two vehicles on fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoth vehicles were totally engulfed, like big fireballs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The next day, three people in the quiet suburban neighbourhood were dead.<\/p>\n

The scene was blocked off Thursday by police tape as RCMP investigated what they said was a dispute between neighbours that culminated in a double homicide and suicide. <\/p>\n

The neighbourhood surrounding 239 Street is one of single family homes with lush lawns. There are basketball hoops, trampolines, and shiny trucks in the driveways. <\/p>\n

Neighbours gathered and stood behind the police tape, buzzing with disbelief about what Fairweather said was a years-long dispute between a man and a couple who lived nearby. All are now dead. <\/p>\n

Fairweather said Thursday he spoke to one of the victims regularly, a woman who walked her dog in the neighbourhood. <\/p>\n

She spoke of long-standing threats against her and her partner by their neighbour. Fairweather said he hadn\u2019t interacted with that man in the six years he\u2019s lived there. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy has been threatening to them over the years, threatened to kill her. The police have visited him about the threats,\u201d Fairweather said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was continuing to do that sort of stuff. He would make rude obscene gestures to them, stuff like that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ridge Meadows RCMP said that around 6:40 p.m. police had responded to a \u201cneighbourhood dispute\u201d on 239 Street, speaking to several people but making no arrests. <\/p>\n

About four hours later, police said they were called to the scene again, this time by Maple Ridge Fire Department reporting a vehicle fire and break and enter in progress; other callers reported shots fired.<\/p>\n

Inside the home, police found two bodies.<\/p>\n

The suspect was believed to be inside a neighbouring home armed with a weapon, and the emergency response team was called in.<\/p>\n

The Independent Investigations Office, British Columbia\u2019s police watchdog, said police went in around 2:10 a.m., finding a man dead \u201cfrom what appears to be a self-inflicted injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said the man and woman found dead in the home were in their 60s. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no outstanding suspects,\u201d the RCMP said in a news release later Thursday. <\/p>\n

Fairweather said the woman had texted him Wednesday night about calling the police over an alleged death threat, but later that night, \u201call hell broke loose.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shocking that there\u2019s something like this happening. You see it in the movies, but you don\u2019t expect it to be in your own neighbourhood, right?\u201d Fairweather said. <\/p>\n

The IIO is involved to determine if police actions or inactions may have prevented the deaths, because of the RCMP\u2019s earlier interactions with the three.<\/p>\n

IIO spokeswoman Rebecca Whalen said the RCMP reported that two people were dead before officers arrived.<\/p>\n

Fairweather said other neighbours had gone into the home as the vehicles burned and found the woman dead. They also found a tenant who lived in a suite in the home and got her out. <\/p>\n

The sight of bullet shell casings on the floor made them fear for their safety, he said. <\/p>\n

Andrew Palahicky lives in the neighbourhood and he said he came out of his home around 2:30 a.m. after hearing what he thought was a flashbang. He saw the fire in the nearby home and police with their rifles out, cutting into the garage. <\/p>\n

He said he didn\u2019t know the couple well, but saw them around the neighbourhood. He said he went to school with the suspect\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

Palahicky said the area is typically \u201cuneventful.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I would consider like one of the safest areas in Maple Ridge, so quite the surprise when you\u2019ve got such chaos at night like that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Fairweather said the neighbourhood is usually quiet and now he\u2019s left to process the loss of his neighbours. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe they\u2019re not here today. I mean, they were here, talking to her yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of mind-boggling, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An RCMP officer works in front of a burned out vehicle at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-22947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}