MONCTON, N.B.—Wallet discarded. Gun cabinet thrown open. Keys tossed on the deck.

Justin Bourque, the alleged killer of three RCMP officers in Moncton, left his home like a “man on a mission.”

Neighbours watched as he walked 600 metres down the pitted gravel road toward the woods, heavily armed, stocked with extra ammo and dressed in full camouflage.

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He paid no attention to Nicholas McWilliams, a 13-year-old boy helping his father fix the roof on their trailer. He walked past gasps and comments from neighbours. He ignored terrified telephone calls to police and kept his gaze fixed forward as if in a trance.

Minutes later, the first of many shots were heard, ultimately leaving three RCMP officers dead and two wounded. One has since been released from hospital.

One of the dead officers has been identified as Const. Dave Ross, a police dog services handler with Codiac RCMP. A woman identifying herself as the mother of Const. Ross confirmed he was dead.

Const. Ross and his wife, Rachael, have a one-and-a-half-year-old boy, and Rachael is six months pregnant, his mother told the Star from his hometown of Victoriaville, Que.

The couple’s wedding anniversary was May 22, according to Rachael’s Facebook profile.

The RCMP have not yet released the names of the three officers killed Wednesday, and cannot confirm that Const. Ross is one of the dead.

Moncton became a city under siege in search of one man — an alleged cop killer, a gun rights crusader and a ghost in a city of fewer than 70,000 people.

Despite tank-like assault vehicles in the streets, helicopters and planes circling the sky and elite officers urgently trucked in, Justin Bourque, 24, continued to evade police as of late Thursday.

He was seen three times in the early morning light, and three times he got away.

Late Thursday evening, residents of Moncton were asked by the police, via Twitter, to keep exterior lights on to aid in the search.

The area on high alert has not grown, Codiac RCMP Supt. Marlene Snowman said. Police believe the suspect is still in that zone.

Virginia Boudreau, 29, lives down the road from the trailer Bourque shared with a roommate. She said a mutual friend had driven Bourque home Wednesday around 6 p.m. from his job at a Moncton restaurant supply company.

She said she was outside when she saw Bourque around 7 p.m. Wednesday evening, just after getting off the phone with her husband.

As she was standing outside, with her 2-year-old child gazing out the window of her trailer, he walked by, clad in camouflage and armed.

“It was the look on his face,” said Boudreau. “It was just like he was staring dead ahead, with this dead look in his eyes. He was just walking in a straight line. He wasn’t in a hurry … a man on a mission.”

She phoned the police. Another neighbour, also concerned by the scene, phoned 911. Bourque disappeared into a nearby park before the first officer arrived on scene.

Boudreau said the officer slowed down in front of her trailer, which sits about 500 metres from the entrance to the forest, and asked which way the suspect went. She pointed to the forest and watched him drive to the edge of the woods and get out of his car.

Boudreau said the car remained in the trailer park until around 4 a.m. and she never saw the officer again. She did not recall his name, but said he frequently attended calls in the area and was friendly.

Kerry Fitzpatrick, 38, who also lives in the trailer park, made sure his four children stayed safe and low when he heard shots being fired.

Fitzpatrick worked with Bourque about two years ago. He knew him to be a nice person, but also someone with an affinity for weapons.

Shortly after hearing a description of the suspect from friends, he went to Bourque’s trailer and found the door open and the contents of his wallet splayed on the table haphazardly.

“You could see the gun case in the living room and from what I could tell it was ajar, open,” said Fitzpatrick.

“On my way out, I could see the key from the gun cabinet on the ledge.”

A friend told the Star that Bourque, who had no criminal record, was an otherwise calm person who armed himself after a “radical restart” in February. A Facebook page created in February and confirmed by the friend is crammed with gun glorification and hatred for police.

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Jennifer Ward, 37, who lives near where one of the officers was shot, was sitting on the couch watching television when she heard the gunfire.

She looked outside and saw a car riddled with bullet holes. She and her son sought safety in the bathroom during the drawn-out gun battle.

“It was just insane. Every time I thought it might be done, there just seemed to be more,” said Ward.

She said when the gunfire subsided and she looked outside, she saw a police officer in his 30s or early 40s, lying dead on the ground.

Jacques Lebel, 63, who lives within the search perimeter, saw Bourque pass right in front of his window and make his way to the intersection of Hildegard Dr. and Mailhot Ave. around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Lebel heard three gunshots shortly after that, and opened his front door to find a police car with a blown radiator in the middle of his street.

Lebel did not see Bourque again, but said it would be easy for someone to hide in the woods near his home.

“The police car is still in the street now,” he told the Star Thursday. “I was scared at the time, but I’m not so worried now, because I see at least six police cars outside my house at the moment. I don’t think (Bourque) will be coming back any time soon.”

Lebel was likely to spend Thursday evening alone, as his wife, who left for a doctor’s appointment in the morning, had not been allowed back into the perimeter. She’s staying at her sister’s in nearby Dieppe until the lockdown has been lifted.

Heavily armed tactical police staged a raid on a rooming house in Moncton around 1 p.m. Thursday and removed four people, who were later released. The raid, which appeared to involve dozens of officers, attracted hundreds of onlookers from the town.

The occupants of the rooming house told the Star nobody was arrested and they did not know why police were there.

Karen Fitzsimmons, who was visiting her boyfriend at the two-storey rooming house, remembers police yelling through a megaphone, telling the residents to come out with their hands raised. “They didn’t tell us why. They just parked that big blue truck and said come outside,” said Fitzsimmons, referring to the large armoured tactical trucks being used by RCMP forces in Moncton.

Inside, police had broken down at least two doors to rooms where residents were not home.

The small rooms, each with a fridge and mattress, appeared occupied and the contents were scattered.

Earlier a police robot and tactical teams were seen entering the home.

A phone directory lists an Alfred Bourque at the address, a man with the same surname as the accused. Wayne, who has lived in the rooming house for more than 20 years and refused to give his last name, said Alfred Bourque lived there until he died. “He’s dead and buried,” said Wayne. “A couple of years ago.”

Wayne did not recall much about Alfred — just that he was in his 50s and the two did not “see eye to eye.”

Police and their armoured vehicles pulled out after two hours without finding the suspect.

Const. John Thompson of the Hampton, N.B., detachment said the killings are a heavy blow.

“There’s a whole bunch of emotions going on,” Thompson said. “They’re like brothers and sisters … The emotions are a little high but everyone’s remaining professional.”

Tracking dogs, helicopters, armoured personnel carriers and paramilitary officers from surrounding New Brunswick communities, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia can be quickly assembled for such emergencies, said Thompson, of the Mounted Police Professional Association.

The cities of Fredericton and Saint John also have paramilitary tactical units that can help out, Thompson said, declining to estimate how many officers would be involved.

“Everything that we have would be called in for this,” Thompson said.

With files from Jacques Gallant, Sean Wetselaar, Joel Eastwood and Paul Clarke

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