A beautiful landscape, a fern in a latte’s foam, the view at the end of a hike — Bruce Richards loved sending his friend Darryl Lucas photos of his recent adventures.
Especially if he knew it would get under Lucas’ skin a little.
“He kept sending it because he knew it would, you know, get me going and that’s our friendship,” Lucas told Global News.
Bruce, alongside his wife Roxanne and their dog, was killed inside their Maple Ridge home on Wednesday night.
Bruce and Roxanne’s dog was also killed.
Provided to Global News
Bruce and Roxanne Richards were retired and loved to travel.
Provided to Global News
Lucas first met Bruce in the ’80s when they played rugby together at Simon Fraser University. They remained friends ever since.
He said they would all meet up and have coffee and the couple always supported the rugby fundraisers.
“Bruce was a teacher in the Coquitlam School District for 35 years or something like that… Roxanne was, I believe, a financial adviser for TD in I think the last posting she had before her retirement was in Maple Ridge too,” Lucas said.
He said they were a lovely couple.
“I’ve heard this sort of stuff before, where a tragedy happens and somebody says, you know, they were the nicest couple, they were so quiet and everyone loved them,” Lucas said.
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“Bruce and Roxanne were the definition of that. They truly were. And it’s just so senseless and so tragic and I feel so bad for their boys and their extended families on that.”
Lucas said they were a fun and loving couple and didn’t have a mean bone in their body.
The suspect in their deaths, who has not been named, is believed to have died from a self-inflicted injury.
Neighbours told Global News that there was ongoing tension between the victims and the suspect, possibly over parking, however police have not yet confirmed a motive.
“I just remember one time I asked, ‘How you doing?” Lucas said.
“And Bruce just rolled his eyes one time and said, ‘Oh, my neighbour’. And that’s as far as I got into that.”
RCMP said that officers were called to reports of a neighbourhood dispute on 239th Street and 118A Avenue earlier on Wednesday, at approximately 6:40 p.m.
Police officers from the Ridge Meadows RCMP spoke with several people but no arrests were made, police confirmed.
Then, at approximately 10:51 p.m., the Maple Ridge Fire Department reported to police that a vehicle was on fire and a break-and-enter was in progress at a home in the same location.
Callers to 911 also reported that shots had been fired at that home.
When Ridge Meadows RCMP arrived back on the scene, police said they found two vehicles and the attached garage on fire, along with two people and a dog dead inside that home.
The suspect was believed to be armed with a weapon inside a neighbouring home and police set up a containment zone, RCMP said.
The Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response Team was called in and eventually gained entry to the second home where another person was reportedly found dead, police said.
Bruce and Roxanne Richards.
Provided to Global News
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has now taken over the case.
“Probably so many people out there have had disputes with their neighbours and it doesn’t get to this,” Lucas said.
“So it’s just, and then in this case it did, it got right to this level.”
Rick, whose last name is not revealed due to security concerns, lives next door to the Richards.
He said they had lived there since the neighbourhood was built — about 25 years.
“They’ve been just great neighbours, great people,” he said.
He added that his neighbours had called a bylaw officer previously over what sounded like a parking dispute but he said he didn’t know the extent of any conflict between the suspect and victims.
Lucas said that right now, everyone is just looking for answers about what happened and why.
“It’s just a sense of bewilderment and then when it hits you, you’re like, why them, this is senseless, absolutely senseless,” he said.
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