One year on, a morning of deadly violence in Fredericton haunts witnesses
Bullet holes have been repaired, but memories of gunfire that killed 4 people can't be escaped
The bedroom wall in Melinda Hachey's Fredericton apartment has been repaired — crack-filled and painted. White and smooth to the touch, it's impossible to tell that just a year ago today, a bullet blew through that wall and sailed across the room into her pantry, spilling food on the floor.
It's impossible to tell from the wall now, but Melinda Hachey, who was in another room when the shooting happened, can't forget.
"When I go in the bedroom, I always look at the wall," Hachey said. "It's weird. It's weird. but it's just something I do when I go in the bedroom."
On Aug. 10, 2018, a gunman at the apartment complex opened fire, killing four people: police constables Sara Burns, 43, and Rob Costello, 45, and civilians Donnie Robichaud, 42, and Bobbie Lee Wright, 32.
Matthew Vincent Raymond is to go on trial next month on four counts of first-degree murder.
Bullet holes gone
Holes in walls and ceilings left by bullets were repaired months ago in the apartments at 237 Brookside Dr., where the bodies were found. The gunman was in one apartment in a cluster of three buildings facing a courtyard and shot toward the other buildings.
Even part of the parking lot where Robichaud and Wright were killed was paved over.
Inside, despite the repairs and the cleanup, some people who live there are still grappling with what happened.
"Hell," said Marilda McGivney to describe the past year. She's Hachey's daughter and lives in the adjacent building.
"It's hard to get over what happened," McGivney said, sitting at her kitchen table. "It was a very emotional day for everybody and it's been an emotional year."
She and her husband, Wayne, have lived in their apartment for eight years. The walls are cream-coloured, and unicorn figurines adorn the open shelves.
I keep to myself, I don't go outside and hang out in the backyard with anybody.- Marilda McGivney
That morning, when the shots started, Wayne left the apartment and ran across the courtyard to the adjacent building to make sure Hachey, Marilda's mother, was OK.
Marilda said she heard every gunshot that morning, and sometimes the sound comes back to haunt her. If she hears fireworks or a car backfire, she is brought back to that morning. It's become more intense recently, with the anniversary drawing near.
"I'm thinking about it all the time," she said in an interview this week. "Like what's that day going to be like? How is it going to affect everybody? It's not easy. It's a hard thing to deal with."
Doesn't like to look outside
In many ways, that day changed how Marilda lives.
"I keep to myself, I don't go outside and hang out in the backyard with anybody," she said. "If we need to go out, I go out to the truck and back in again and that's it. I don't hang out, outside.
"Now, I don't like to go stand in the window to look outside. I'll stand here and look out, but I won't go to the window and stand there. Wayne does, you know, if he hears a noise or sees something, he'll go. And I'm always saying, 'Wayne, get out of the window.' It terrifies me."
Wayne prefers not to talk about it.
David MacCoubrey lives across the hall from the McGivneys. Plants frame the picture window in his living room, which looks out on the courtyard.
MacCoubrey saw bullets fly from that vantage point.
He pointed out a spot in his wall and ceiling near the window that had been repaired after a bullet came through.
Now, he just wants to move on.
Became a better neighbour
"There's nothing you can do, you can't dwell on it or it'll kill you," said MacCoubrey who, from his own home, can see the apartment used by the man charged in the shooting.
"The anniversary brings [it to] the forefront, but I open my curtains every day and see his apartment up there, and I looked at the bullet holes in the windows for probably a month and a half around the complex. So I've had time to deal with it."
Through it, MacCoubrey says he has become a better neighbour and wants to build community spirit.
"I try to be a little bit more friendly here and say hi to people and stuff, especially if they're new," he said.
"It's good to know your neighbour. That was one of the things that they were putting around last year — 'Know your neighbour' — and I kind of think that is a good thing."
A simple hello, MacCoubrey said, can make the difference for neighbours, even those who already know what others are going through.
"You know, people kind of look at you a little different sometimes but not in a bad way or anything like that. … People just know that you seen stuff that you probably shouldn't ever have to see … but the neighbourhood, I think life goes on after a while.
"It's so unfortunate that it's that way, but I mean, it's always probably in the back of people's minds."