The man believed to have fatally shot his girlfriend and her father on New Year’s Eve in Halifax before killing himself was wanted by Toronto police in relation to a nightclub shooting in 2019.

Halifax Regional Police confirmed Friday that Matthew Costain, 39, who is the sole suspect in the double homicide, is the same Matthew Costain with an outstanding arrest warrant in Ontario.

The Toronto Police Service told CBC News Costain was wanted for “several 2019 firearm offences in Toronto.”

According to the Toronto Sun, Costain was a suspect in a shooting at a nightclub in North York in August 2019. Four people were injured, with one sent to hospital.

Matthew Costain was previously wanted in connection with a Toronto nightclub shooting in 2019. Toronto Police distributed this undated photo to media at the time. (Toronto Police)

Court records show that Costain had a criminal record predating the shooting.

In 2014, at the age of 29, he was found guilty by a Toronto jury of three counts of possession of firearms. He pleaded guilty to one count of simple possession of cocaine.

In the sentencing decision for those charges, an Ontario Superior Court justice refers to Costain as a “repeat offender.”

Reporting by the Fort Erie Times says when Costain was in jail in Ontario in 2014, he was charged with assaulting three other inmates.

The Toronto Star has also reported on Costain’s history in Ontario, including an excerpt from a sworn affidavit he gave as part of a 2016 lawsuit on solitary confinement.

According to Nova Scotia’s Public Prosecution Service, Costain does not have a criminal record in Nova Scotia.

MORE TOP STORIES