Fredericton shooter says he almost shot 2 men days before he killed 4 people

Matthew Raymond said he almost shot two men in the days before he killed four Fredericton residents.

His voice shaking as he testified, Raymond described becoming afraid for his life in the days before he shot and killed Donnie Robichaud, Bobbie Lee Wright, and Fredericton constables Sara Burns and Robb Costello. He's admitted to shooting all four at 237 Brookside Dr. on Aug. 10, 2018.

Raymond has pleaded not guilty, and his defence team is arguing he was not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder.

Following the testimony of his mother, Shirley Raymond, Matthew Raymond was escorted by court sheriffs from the prisoner's box to the witness box Tuesday morning. He hovered his hand over the Bible as he was sworn in.

He testified in the week leading up to the shooting he believed Armageddon "was definitely in full swing."

He said he thought the people in his apartment building were demons and out to get him. He thought he heard a child in the courtyard saying "come out and play, baby." He believed that was a threat sent by the child's father, a man he believed was an "Islamist," and who he thought gave him dirty looks.

The court previously heard the child could not speak English, and the man, an immigrant, did not interact with Raymond in that manner.

Raymond said he thought demons were coming to behead him.

He said he thought people had discovered he was the man who protested an anti-Islamophobia bill the year before, when he wore a sandwich board saying "no sharia law."

He said he barricaded his door, and started hearing thumping on the walls. At night, the thumping moved to his door, he said. He began pacing in his apartment, holding a rifle he said he bought so he can hunt for food once the end times came.

A few days before Aug. 10, he's not sure when, he looked out his window and saw a man he recognized. Raymond said he almost shot him, "because I figured he was demon," but did not.

"Thank God I didn't," Raymond told the court. "I could have easily shot him."

The same thing happened again with another man. Raymond said he doesn't know why he didn't shoot. Raymond said he "had no thoughts."

Court was adjourned Tuesday before Raymond could speak about the events of Aug. 10. He's expected to continue his testimony Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Raymond tried to explain his occult calculations and belief that a demonic government choreographed or fabricated everything from world events to local trials.

He struggled to decipher his own YouTube comments and occult numerology calculations he made in the months before the shooting. Raymond explained he used to use occult numbers to find out if certain people were demons and if certain events were staged.

He said he no longer believes in hoaxes and conspiracy theories.

"Maybe it was the medication. It could have been. But now it's fully engrained, that I did not believe it," he said.

'The world is a stage'

Raymond spoke slowly and haltingly as defence lawyer Nathan Gorham took him through his work history and whether he had many friends. He said he had a girlfriend named Sue from 2016 to 2017 but wouldn't share her last name.

"I want to keep her out of this," he said.

Before 2017, he didn't have much interest in politics or religion, he said. After 2017, however, he began having "strong" beliefs about both, including that some people involved were actors who weren't human.

"I thought that the politicians and the government was controlled in a way that's not normal. I believed they were — it's kind of like a play, and it was strategic in that the cards were already dealt.

"And come a time in 2017, I believed that there were beings which are other known … the other names are demons."

Raymond said he didn't attend church as an adult but did go as a "youngster."

"I think I did believe in God. I just didn't really think much about it, about Him."

Raymond said he thought most everything in the news was fake.

"Any happenings in the news, major happenings, even right down to traffic accidents, I figured that they were staged."

Gorham asked whether he had any views about court cases.

"Oh, court cases, of course, it slipped my mind. Because of the happenings that I thought were hoaxes, fake, I thought that the court cases were one in the same."

He said he believed this about the Moncton case of Marissa Shepard, who was found guilty in 2018 of first-degree murder.

"I did some numbers, numerology, equations, linked to it and I came out with the conclusion that it was a hoax," he said of the case, which is now headed to a new trial after Shephard's conviction was overturned.

Gorham showed a screenshot that Raymond said he took of a news article. Raymond said he made calculations on the screenshot and came up with the number 666.

"I believed that of course it was occult, and I was against that."

Gorham pointed at another calculation on the screenshot and asked him to explain to the jury what it meant. Raymond said he was doing a calculation using the name Baylee Wylie, the victim in the Shepard case. Raymond said the letter B signifies the number 2, the W was a 5.

As he explained the calculations, Raymond drew numbers in the air in front of him. He hesitated and said he had a "memory blank" at one point.

Gorham asked him why he believed the government would be interested in conducting fake trials?

"Because I believed that they followed Satan," Raymond said.

"It's just what they do. And everything is a stage. The world is a stage."

Raymond said he also believed Shepard's name was fake.

"She had the extra [S] in the Marissa," he said. "I'm thinking now it doesn't fit … but possibly the double S had something to do with it."

He said it's possible that it was a "given name" on purpose, "possibly at birth," or she was possibly an actor.

Gorham asked if Raymond if he believed these actors were human,

"No, one word I used was 'beings' but that stands for demons, that they came from Satan's seed."

He said he believed they had DNA different from that of humans.

He said he thought he was being shown certain numbers by God.

"I thought I was being given the power by God," he said.

Testimony followed his mother's

Shirley Raymond finished her testimony earlier Tuesday, after testifying most of the day Monday. She sat in the gallery as Raymond testified.

Shirley Raymond testified Monday that in the months before the shooting she begged her son to get medical help. Beginning in 2017, he became obsessed with conspiracy theories, religion and what he believed were demons and faked shootings, she said.

He also stockpiled food in their shared home and was convinced the world was going to end soon. She said he never accepted he needed help and denied he was sick.

She looked at her son from time to time as she gave her testimony, but his eyes were fixed on her, and occasionally he wiped away tears.