GoFundMe created for pair of victims in weekend shooting and apartment fire

The writer of this article was a resident of Veronica Apartments and was affected by the fire on April 18th.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — More than a thousand dollars has been donated to help a couple reeling from the shooting and fire that took place in Fort St. John over the weekend.

Josh Gaudet, a Calgary resident, has organized a GoFundMe for Corey MacDonald and Remi Boutilier, residents of the Veronica Apartments building that suffered a serious fire on April 18th.

Shortly after the fire began, a man driving a silver two-door car shot at who the fundraiser says was MacDonald and Boutilier in their pickup truck outside the building.

Gaudet claims MacDonald drove his truck towards the gunman, who he says was standing outside his vehicle with a firearm and a machete, in an effort to incapacitate him before fleeing the scene.

The gunman is believed by police officers to have started the fire himself. He went on to drive his car into the flaming apartment complex and died at the scene.

Meanwhile, the fundraiser claims MacDonald took Boutilier to the Fort St. John Hospital for medical attention.

The hospital was briefly locked down while they were present. 

“Now Corey [and] Remi are homeless and all their possessions [are] gone,” Gaudet’s GoFundMe page reads. “Including their truck which has been seized for forensics.”

Gaudet created the fundraiser on behalf of MacDonald – who he calls “a very close friend’s eldest son” – in the hopes of helping him and his fiancee “regain their footing and get back to some normalcy after such a horrific ordeal.”

When contacted via Facebook for confirmation of the fundraiser’s legitimacy, MacDonald said the donations people have already left mean a lot to him and Boutilier.

“We are completely blown away at how many people have helped so far,” MacDonald said on April 23rd. “We thought that we were going to have to take everything on our shoulders.”

Energeticcity.ca contacted Gaudet to learn more about the situation but he did not respond.

The goal for the GoFundMe is listed as $2,800. As of publication time, $1,930 has been donated. To view the GoFundMe, click here.