Suspect in New Year's Eve double slaying in Halifax was wanted in Toronto shooting

Halifax police say the 39-year-old man who allegedly killed a woman and her father on New Year's Eve was a fugitive wanted in a 2019 Toronto nightclub shooting.

Investigators say Matthew Costain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound a few hours after he shot and killed 40-year-old Cora-Lee Smith and her 73-year-old father, Bradford Downey, in a car in downtown Halifax on Dec. 31.

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Police say Costain was in a relationship with Smith, and that the deaths involve a case of intimate partner violence.

Toronto police issued a warrant for Costain's arrest on Sept. 6, 2019, alleging he was involved in a nightclub shooting a month earlier that injured four people. The original warrant said Costain was wanted for illegal possession of a restricted firearm, aggravated assault and breach of probation.

"Matthew Costain, from the events in Halifax on New Year’s Eve, has now been confirmed to be the same Matthew Costain wanted in Toronto," Marla MacInnis, a spokeswoman for the Halifax police, said in an email on Friday.

In a follow-up email, MacInnis said Halifax police were unaware Costain was in the city. "If a jurisdiction has a warrant for someone and believes them to be in a different jurisdiction, it is up to them to reach out to another agency to locate them," she wrote.

"Matthew Costain was not known to Halifax Regional Police prior to the events of New Year’s Eve."

Toronto police did not respond on Friday about whether they had informed Halifax police about the outstanding arrest warrant.

Rev. Jivaro Smith, pastor to the grieving families of the Halifax victims, says a time of counselling, prayer and healing is being planned for Monday evening in the historically Black community where the victims lived.

Smith, the lead minister of the Saint Thomas Baptist Church, says the church in North Preston, N.S., will partner with trauma counsellors and 902 Man Up, a non-profit group created to reduce community violence, to offer assistance to anyone affected by the killings.

He says the small community on the eastern outskirts of Halifax has been stunned and saddened by the deaths, which are the fourth and fifth murders linked to intimate partner violence in Nova Scotia since October. Smith said he plans to address the tragedy in his Sunday service, during which he will ask parishioners "to lean on God … and trust in Him in the face of tragedy."

The pastor said the family is struggling with intense grief, adding that Cora-Lee Smith had two daughters.

"They're having a difficult time just wrapping their mind around the fact this has happened, especially with Bradford and Cora-Lee being the kind of people they were, such nice and loving people," Smith said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.