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“Containment is really important at the onset,” said Tom Hart, president of Canadian Critical Incident Inc. and a retired member of the Durham Regional Police. “Why he hasn’t surfaced yet is surprising: Either he’s setting up for another ambush or he’s committed suicide.”

Canadian murder suspects will regularly melt into the city or countryside without spurring city-wide paramilitary searches, but the case of Justin Bourque was immediately different.

Witnesses described the sickening nonchalance with which he shot his three victims, and a “subject assessment” by RCMP would have soon determined that they were dealing with a man bent on making a statement.

“I would anticipate that this person is looking forward to some type of interaction with the police, as opposed to just trying to blend in with the community,” said Mark Lomax, the Pennsylvania-based director of the National Tactical Officer’s Association.

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After analyzing the terrain of the search area, Jim Van Allen, a B.C.-based profiler with Investigative Solutions Network Inc., said, “he can pop in and out at his pleasure when he has an opportunity to do so.”

“He doesn’t appear to be willing to take on a SWAT team; he’ll be looking for a lone officer at a checkpoint or somebody in a patrol car,” he said.

As soon as news as the triple fatality arrived, upper echelons of the RCMP would have immediately begun summoning in personnel and equipment from across the country.