Canadian police have foiled a plot by three suspects who were planning to go to a mall in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and kill as many people as they could before committing suicide on Valentine’s Day, police said Saturday. One of the suspects fatally shot himself as police moved in to arrest him and an American suspect confessed to the plot when she was arrested at the Halifax airport, a senior police official told The Associated Press.
Police and Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay said the plot was not related to terrorism.
“This appeared to be a group of murderous misfits that were … prepared to wreak havoc and mayhem on our community,” MacKay said Saturday. “The attack does not appear to have been culturally motivated, therefore not linked to terrorism.”
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that friends Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, 23, of Geneva, Illinois, and Randall Steven Shepherd, 20, of Nova Scotia, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
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Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney applauded the work of police in Canada and Geneva, Illinois, and well as border officials in a statement. The Geneva police department said in a statement they were contacted by Canadian police and had no contact with the American woman before her arrest.
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Associated Press reporter Jason Keyser in Chicago contributed to this story.
