A shooting rampage in Moncton, N.B. on Wednesday night sent shock waves across the country and left three RCMP officers dead. Little is know about the suspect, identified by the Mounties as Justin Bourque, but a Facebook account under the same name has been linked to the shooter.
Posts to the account reference three hard rock or heavy metal acts, linking the innocent, unrelated bands to the unimaginable tragedy.
Just hours before the shootings, the following lyrics from a Megadeth song were posted to the Facebook page:
Those lines are the lyrics to the Megadeth song "Hook In Mouth" from the band's 1988 album "So Far, So Good... So What!" Unfortunately for Megadeth, this is not the first time the band has been indirectly linked to a violent criminal act in Canada. Earlier this year Matt de Grood, the accused in a horrific stabbing in Calgary that left five dead, posted on his Facebook page lyrics to the Megadeth song "Dread and the Fugitive Mind," found on the band's 2001 album "The World Needs A Hero."
This also wasn't the first time Bourque posted song lyrics on his Facebook page. On May 5, Bourque posted the following:
Those lyrics are from "Castratikron," a song from the 2007 album "The Dethalbum" from Dethklok, a cartoon heavy metal group whose music would later be performed live on tour using actual musicians.
And on March 24, Bourque posted lyrics to the Dio song "Night People," the opening track from their 1987 album "Dream Evil."
There is no evidence any of these artists have ever condoned or endorsed acts of violence. However, Megadeth lead singer Dave Mustaine is a guns rights activist who once accused President Obama of staging mass shootings, including a movie theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in order to pass gun control.
"Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban so he's staging all of these murders," Mustaine said at a 2012 concert in Singapore.
"The 'Fast and Furious' thing down at the border. And Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there. And now, the beautiful people at the Sikh temple... I don't know where I'm going to live if America keeps going the way it's going because it looks like it's turning into Nazi America."
Here are reactions from musicians regarding the shooting and the Megadeth Facebook post.
