HALIFAX — Halifax police say the 39-year-old man who allegedly killed a girl and her father on New Yr’s Eve was a fugitive needed in a 2019 Toronto nightclub capturing.
Investigators say Matthew Costain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound a couple of hours after he shot and killed 40-year-old Cora-Lee Smith and her 73-year-old father, Bradford Downey, in a automotive in downtown Halifax on Dec. 31.
Police say Costain was in a relationship with Smith, and that the deaths contain a case of intimate associate violence.
Toronto police issued a warrant for Costain’s arrest on Sept. 6, 2019, alleging he was concerned in a nightclub capturing a month earlier that injured 4 individuals. The unique warrant stated Costain was needed for unlawful possession of a restricted firearm, aggravated assault and breach of probation.
“Matthew Costain, from the occasions in Halifax on New Yr’s Eve, has now been confirmed to be the identical Matthew Costain needed in Toronto,” Marla MacInnis, a spokeswoman for the Halifax police, stated in an e mail on Friday.
In a follow-up e mail, MacInnis stated Halifax police have been unaware Costain was within the metropolis. “If a jurisdiction has a warrant for somebody and believes them to be in a distinct jurisdiction, it’s as much as them to succeed in out to a different company to find them,” she wrote.
“Matthew Costain was not recognized to Halifax Regional Police previous to the occasions of New Yr’s Eve.”
Toronto police didn’t reply on Friday about whether or not they had knowledgeable Halifax police in regards to the excellent arrest warrant.
Rev. Jivaro Smith, pastor to the grieving households of the Halifax victims, says a time of counselling, prayer and therapeutic is being deliberate for Monday night within the traditionally Black group the place the victims lived.
Smith, the lead minister of the Saint Thomas Baptist Church, says the church in North Preston, N.S., will associate with trauma counsellors and 902 Man Up, a non-profit group created to scale back group violence, to supply help to anybody affected by the killings.
He says the small group on the jap outskirts of Halifax has been shocked and saddened by the deaths, that are the fourth and fifth murders linked to intimate associate violence in Nova Scotia since October. Smith stated he plans to deal with the tragedy in his Sunday service, throughout which he’ll ask parishioners “to lean on God … and belief in Him within the face of tragedy.”
The pastor stated the household is battling intense grief, including that Cora-Lee Smith had two daughters.
“They’re having a troublesome time simply wrapping their thoughts across the truth this has occurred, particularly with Bradford and Cora-Lee being the type of individuals they have been, such good and loving individuals,” Smith stated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 3, 2025.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press
