MONTREAL (AP) — A man suspected of killing three people in the greater Montreal area was shot and killed by police Thursday morning.

Quebec’s independent police watchdog said the Montreal police tactical unit was at a motel at about 7 a.m. for a search linked to the investigation into three homicides in Montreal and Laval in the past two days.

The watchdog said officers were confronted by a suspect with a firearm. Shots were fired and the man was struck by at least one bullet and pronounced dead at the scene.

The police operation comes after a pair of killings about 65 minutes apart and just a few miles from each other on Tuesday evening in two Montreal boroughs.

Police said they could not rule out the victims were chosen at random.

One of the men killed was identified as Andre Fernand Lemieux, 64, the father of Canadian professional boxer David Lemieux. The other victim was Mohamed Salah Belhaj, 48, an intervention officer at a local mental health hospital.

A senior Montreal police spokesman said Wednesday that investigators were certain a single suspect was behind both killings and they were waiting on ballistics evidence to confirm it.

Also, at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, a 22-year-old man was shot and killed in Laval, just north of Montreal.

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