A 70-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting death of an OPP officer in southwest Ontario earlier this week.

Fred Preston of Sundridge, Ont., remains in critical condition in the London Health Sciences Centre-Victoria Campus, the Ontario Provincial Police said Wednesday in a news release.

He is accused of shooting and killing Const. Vu Pham, a 37-year-old father of three. The attempted murder charge relates to a second, unnamed officer.

Pham, who grew up in Sundridge, met the man accused of killing him. But a neighbour says it's unlikely the suspect would have recognized him.

"Fred Preston would not realize at the time when this cop pulled him over that it was somebody that he knew from Sundridge," Alvin Chapman, who has known the suspect for 45 years, said Wednesday.

Preston was once the reeve of a small northern Ontario community. His final term on council in Sundridge, Ont., was in 2003.

Several residents of Sundridge told The Canadian Press that the two men attended the same church.

However, Heather Thompson, Pham's sister-in-law, said Pham left the community for good in his early 20s after graduating from police college.

Sundridge is nearly a four-hour drive away from Seaforth, Ont. -- the small Huron County town where the deadly shootout took place on Monday.

Pham exchanged shots with a suspect Monday morning after pulling over a vehicle wanted in connection with a domestic dispute, but the OPP said Pham became "immediately incapacitated."

The OPP said another officer in the vicinity located Preston and exchanged gunfire with him, leaving the suspect wounded. Witnesses say between 15 and 20 shots were fired, but this hasn't been verified.

Pham died in hospital Monday evening.

None of the charges against Preston have been proven in court.

'A great guy'

Chapman, a neighbour of the accused, called Preston "a great guy."

"I can't believe it," he said about the allegations.

Preston was an avid hunter and accomplished marksman who loved woodworking, according to those who know him.

The senior started a website, Backyardstuff.ca, to sell his carvings.

"Ex-logger Fred Preston enjoys working with wood," the website reads. "He decided to start caving (sic) a couple of years ago. With every statue Fred creates his talents grow."

Sources said Preston and his wife had been separated for more than a year, with his wife living with a sister while he lived with a daughter. The couple have several children.

Preston had allegedly visited his wife in Seaforth while armed with a high-powered rifle when police were called for a domestic disturbance.

Pham was also an avid outdoorsman who would often take his wife and three young sons on camping trips.

Aside from serving his community as a police officer, he also helped out as a soccer and hockey coach in Wingham, Ont., where he resided.

His memorial service will take place at Wingham's North Huron Wescast Community Complex at 1 p.m. on Friday with full police honours. There will be visitations on Thursday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the McBurney Funeral Home.

"I'm glad that they're honouring him because he's a man that should be honoured," Thompson said from her Sundridge home.

"He was a wonderful brother. He was a wonderful son. I don't know where to stop. He was a wonderful man of God. He lived his faith on his sleeve. He was real."

The province's Special Investigations Unit is now probing the shooting. The organization investigates each case where a civilian is injured in the presence of police officers.

Pham is the 104th OPP officer killed in the line of duty since the force's inception 100 years ago. Twenty four, including Pham, were fatally shot and one was fatally stabbed.

With files from The Canadian Press