Fred Preston, 70, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of OPP Const. Vu Pham. Mr. Preston died on Thursday.
A retired logger and one-time politician was charged Wednesday with shooting and killing a provincial police officer and trying to kill another in a gunfight on a rural Ontario road.
Const. Vu Pham, a 15-year veteran of the Ontario Provincial Police force and a married father of three boys, was shot fatally as he got out of his cruiser after stopping a pickup truck Monday morning near the southwestern Ontario village of Winthrop.
The suspect shot at another officer who arrived at the scene, police allege, and was then himself shot and seriously wounded.
Fred Preston, 70, of the northern Ontario village of Sundridge, remained in critical condition in a London, Ont., hospital Wednesday, as police charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Witnesses described a tense gunfight with 15 to 20 shots fired across a two-lane road.
In a stunning coincidence, Mr. Preston likely knew Const. Pham as the officer was growing up, a neighbour of Mr. Preston's said Wednesday. Const. Pham and Mr. Preston both lived at one time in Sundridge, some 375 kilometres away from the crime scene.
Const. Pham, originally from Vietnam, was adopted as a boy by Dan Thompson, who became the pastor at Bethel Pentecostal Church in Sundridge, said a town resident who didn't want to be named.
For both the suspect and his alleged victim to have come from the village of 1,000 so far away from the tragedy left the community shaken, she said.
"That's why it shocked everybody in Sundridge," said the woman, who like many other residents knows both Const. Pham's family - the Thompsons - and the Prestons.
Mr. Preston was Joly Township's reeve starting in the 1990s, with his final term ending in 2003. Friends and neighbours said the ex-logger was an avid hunter who had taken up wood carving.
Mr. Preston and Const. Pham went to the same church when Pham was a boy, but Preston wouldn't have connected the boy he knew to the 37-year-old police constable he is charged with shooting and killing, said one of Preston's neighbours.
"Fred Preston would not realize at the time when this cop pulled him over that it was somebody that he knew from Sundridge," said Alvin Chapman, who has known Mr. Preston for 45 years.
Mr. Preston's condition was listed as critical Wednesday evening - no change from when he was taken to hospital after the shooting Monday morning. Ms. Chapman said it might be better if Mr. Preston's condition did not improve.
"I hope he passes away, because I do not want him to suffer in prison," he said.
"It's hard to believe. He wouldn't hurt a flea."
He was good with a gun, though, Ms. Chapman said.
"He and his brother, they'd target practise all the time."
Sources say Mr. Preston had been living apart from his wife, Barb, for about a year and a half and that she lives with their daughter, Anne. Mr. Preston had been living in the basement of another daughter's house, a source said. Published reports say Preston went to his ex-wife's residence in southern Ontario with a high-powered rifle shortly before Pham was mortally wounded.
Funeral arrangements for Const. Pham have been made and thousands of police officers are expected to pay tribute to the slain officer in Wingham, two hours north of London, on Friday.
Heather Thompson, his sister-in-law, said Wednesday that Const. Pham was a dedicated family man who will be greatly missed.
"I'm glad that they're honouring him because he's a man that should be honoured," she 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."
A service for Const. Pham wast to be held Friday at 1 p.m. at the North Huron Wescast Community Complex in Wingham. Visitation was scheduled for Thursday, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at McBurney Funeral Home.
Thousands of police officers from across Canada and some from the United States were expected to attend the funeral, said OPP Inspector Dave Ross.
"The purpose behind the police funeral is to pay tribute to the fallen officer by his fellow officers from around the country and certainly from the U.S.," he said.
"It's a show of support mainly for the family."
Ms. Thompson said Const. Pham left Sundridge after high school to go to college. He lived there periodically as he attended police college and right after graduation, leaving Sundridge for good some time in his early 20s, Ms. Thompson recalled.
He worked in the Ontario communities of Parry Sound and Cochrane before moving to Wingham, she said.
The family is asking for memorial donations to a trust fund for Pham's children - Tyler, 12, Jordan, 10, and Joshua, 7, - in lieu of flowers. Donations can be made through Scotiabank.