MAPLE RIDGE — Bruce Fairweather was in bed Wednesday night when he says his wife heard what sounded like gunshots.
He went outside his home in Maple Ridge, B.C., and saw two vehicles on fire.
"Both vehicles were totally engulfed, like big fireballs," he said.
The next day, three people in the quiet suburban neighbourhood were dead.
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.
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.
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.
Fairweather said Thursday he spoke to one of the victims regularly, a woman who walked her dog in the neighbourhood.
She spoke of long-standing threats against her and her partner by their neighbour. Fairweather said he hadn't interacted with that man in the six years he's lived there.
"The guy has been threatening to them over the years, threatened to kill her. The police have visited him about the threats," Fairweather said.
"He was continuing to do that sort of stuff. He would make rude obscene gestures to them, stuff like that."
Ridge Meadows RCMP said that around 6:40 p.m. police had responded to a "neighbourhood dispute" on 239 Street, speaking to several people but making no arrests.
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.
Inside the home, police found two bodies.
The suspect was believed to be inside a neighbouring home armed with a weapon, and the emergency response team was called in.
The Independent Investigations Office, British Columbia's police watchdog, said police went in around 2:10 a.m., finding a man dead "from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury."
Police said the man and woman found dead in the home were in their 60s.
"There are no outstanding suspects," the RCMP said in a news release later Thursday.
Fairweather said the woman had texted him Wednesday night about calling the police over an alleged death threat, but later that night, "all hell broke loose."
"It's shocking that there's something like this happening. You see it in the movies, but you don't expect it to be in your own neighbourhood, right?" Fairweather said.
The IIO is involved to determine if police actions or inactions may have prevented the deaths, because of the RCMP's earlier interactions with the three.
IIO spokeswoman Rebecca Whalen said the RCMP reported that two people were dead before officers arrived.
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.
The sight of bullet shell casings on the floor made them fear for their safety, he said.
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.
He said he didn't know the couple well, but saw them around the neighbourhood. He said he went to school with the suspect's children.
Palahicky said the area is typically "uneventful."
"This is what I would consider like one of the safest areas in Maple Ridge, so quite the surprise when you've got such chaos at night like that," he said.
Fairweather said the neighbourhood is usually quiet and now he's left to process the loss of his neighbours.
"I can't believe they're not here today. I mean, they were here, talking to her yesterday," he said. "It's just kind of mind-boggling, actually."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24. 2025.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
