Shooter apologizes to victims' families after hours of cross examination

After hours of cross examination, Matthew Raymond broke down in tears and apologized to the families of the four Fredericton residents he shot and killed in 2018.

Red faced and looking down, Raymond's voice broke Tuesday when he said "I'm so sorry to the families."

Tuesday marked the fifth day of Raymond's testimony. The 50-year-old has admitted to killing Donnie Robichaud and Bobbie Lee Wright from his apartment at 237 Brookside Dr., then Fredericton constables Sara Burns and Robb Costello when they responded to calls of shots fired on Aug. 10, 2018.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his defence team is arguing he was not criminally responsible for the shooting on account of a mental illness.

His apology came after Crown prosecutor Jill Knee put to Raymond her last two suggestions

"I'm going to suggest that you knew picking up the firearm and firing at them would kill them," Knee said.

"I did," Raymond said.

"I'm going to suggest to you, sir, that you knew it was wrong."

"I did not. I would never do such a thing," he paused.

"It goes against everything," he said and started crying.

As he then apologized, one family member in the gallery shook his head.

The Crown and defence have agreed Raymond had a mental illness at the time of the shooting, meaning whether he knew right from wrong is at the centre of the trial

To get a not-guilty verdict, the defence must prove to the jury, on a balance of probabilities, that Raymond's mental illness either stopped him from knowing the nature and consequences of his actions, or knowing what he was doing was wrong.

Raymond testified he knew he was killing when he shot, but that morning he thought it was the end times, and he was shooting demons coming to kill him, not humans.

Self-defence challenged

On Tuesday, Knee challenged Raymond on why he thought he was under attack when the people he shot and killed were nowhere near him.

Knee said he couldn't have been defending himself because the police officers he killed did not have their guns drawn. She said the two civilians he killed in the parking lot of his apartment complex were not walking toward him or threatening him.

Raymond said at the time he believed everyone, including the police, were demons who were coming to kill him. He repeated multiple times that he shot at everyone who moved that day because he thought it was the end times.

Knee said he did not shoot at everything that moved because that day, two people came to check on Robichaud's body, and they were not shot.

He said he does not remember seeing the couple come down and look over Robichaud's body. The only time he registered them was when he saw their heads and shoulders from behind a parked car, he said.

"I do not know why," Raymond said. "Thank God I did not shoot."

Raymond had also fired into two apartments where people had looked out to see what happened. 

"The person in the window was not moving," Knee said. "He was just standing there."

"All I know ... is that he came into view and I fired," he said. "Thank goodness, no, thank God he survived."

Altering the rifle

She asked Raymond why he used the Simonov SKS rifle and not the shotgun to shoot the victims.

"It was the main rifle," he said. "The shotgun was more for a backup."

Raymond testified that on Aug. 10 he had modified the rifle to double the number of bullets it could fire without reloading.

"You altered the rifle so you can fire at more targets," Knee said.

"I wouldn't call them targets ... I was defending myself for the end times," Raymond said in response. 

Mentioning the victims one by one, she said Raymond knew they were people, and that shooting them was wrong. Raymond said "no," each time.

An 'improper' question

On Monday, Knee challenged him on whether he planned the shooting. She said he had laid out newspapers and photographs to send a message to police. He said he did lay them out to send a message, but to anyone who may come into the apartment, whether it's demons or police.

One newspaper found on Raymond's bed, a Globe and Mail from 2008, had an article about a man who had beheaded another man on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba. Knee told Raymond he had followed the case and knew the man used the not-criminally-responsible defence. Raymond said no to both those assertions.

On Tuesday, Justice Larry Landry told the jury to disregard those particular questions because what happened 12 years ago has "no relevance" to this case.

"Those questions were highly improper," Landry told the jury. "You must completely disregard that aspect of the prosecutor's questioning from yesterday afternoon."

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