Man accused of fatal shooting at Salmon Arm church found not criminally responsible

SALMON ARM , B.C. — A man accused in a deadly shooting and aggravated assault last year in a church in British Columbia's southern Interior has been found not criminally responsible for the attacks.

A judge-alone trial in B.C. Supreme Court in Salmon Arm issued the decision Wednesday during a one-day trial for Matrix Gathergood.

He was charged after 78-year-old church elder Gordon Parmenter was shot to death when a gunman burst in during a service at the Church of Christ in Salmon Arm on April 14, 2019.

A second parishioner survived a shot in the leg.

The judge accepted testimony from a psychiatrist that Gathergood, who's in his mid-20s, was paranoid, suffering from schizophrenia, and irrationally believed Parmenter was a mortal danger to him.

The decision means Gathergood will remain at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam pending regular reviews. (CKIZ)

This report from The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2020