The person who fatally shot his girlfriend and her father on New 12 months’s Eve in Halifax earlier than killing himself was needed by Toronto police in relation to a nightclub capturing in 2019.
Halifax Regional Police confirmed Friday that Matthew Costain, 39, who’s the only real suspect within the double murder, is similar Matthew Costain with an excellent arrest warrant in Ontario.
The Toronto Police Service advised Ontario Chronicle Costain was needed for “a number of 2019 firearm offences in Toronto.”
Based on the Ontario Chronicle, Costain was a suspect in a capturing at a packed nightclub in North York in August 2019.
Toronto Police mentioned they discovered 5 victims on the nightclub, together with one male in life-threatening situation and 4 others, together with two females, in non-life-threatening situation.
Offences courting again 20 years
Costain doesn’t have a prison document in Nova Scotia however he has a prolonged one in Ontario, the place he grew up. Twenty years in the past, he confronted armed theft and firearms offences and was sentenced to 2 years in jail.
Matthew Costain was beforehand needed in reference to a Toronto nightclub capturing in 2019. Toronto Police distributed this undated photograph to media on the time. (Toronto Police)
In 2014, he was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months after being discovered responsible of firearms charges. He was credited for already having served two years on remand.
Reporting by the Fort Erie Instances says when Costain was in jail in 2014, he was charged with assaulting three different inmates.
The Ontario Chronicle has additionally reported on Costain’s historical past in Ontario, together with an excerpt from a sworn affidavit he gave as a part of a 2016 lawsuit on solitary confinement.
Historical past of home violence
Along with the costs he has confronted, courtroom data present another perception into Costain’s previous.
A 2010 courtroom determination reveals that Costain had a historical past of bodily abusing a previous companion.
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Police are actually investigating a 3rd loss of life, which they are saying is related to the murders. Taryn Grant has the most recent.
A sentencing determination from 2014 notes that Costain had “a critical drug drawback,” and was utilizing crack cocaine each day.
Costain’s victims in Halifax have been 40-year-old Cora-Lee Smith and her 73-year-old father, Bradford Downey, who’re being mourned by their group of North Preston.
Police have known as the killings an act of intimate companion violence, marking the most recent in a string of home homicides in Nova Scotia in latest months.
For anybody affected by household or intimate companion violence, there’s help out there by means of disaster strains and native help companies. If you happen to’re in fast hazard or worry to your security or that of others round you, please name 911.
If you happen to or somebody you realize is struggling, this is the place to get assist:
