False B.C. fugitives tip sends Nova Scotia police scrambling

For a few brief moments Tuesday morning, it looked like the massive hunt for two B.C. fugitives wanted for murder might suddenly centre on a town in northern Nova Scotia.

At 8:30 a.m. local time, police in Amherst, N.S.,got a report that Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, were at the Amherst Centre Mall,which sits just off the Trans Canada Highway near the border with New Brunswick.

Several police units descended on the mall, according to a news release from the Amherst Police Department. Officerswere able to track down the two men who triggered the alarm and quickly confirmed they are not the fugitives, who remain at large.

Schmegelsky andMcLeod are each charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a man near Dease Lake, B.C., earlier this month. The pair are also suspects in the homicides of a tourist couple travelling in the same area.

For days, the search for the two fugitives has centred on northern Manitoba.