Man arrested in connection with Tyler Richards, Naricho Clayton shooting deaths

A 27-year-old Halifax man has been arrested in a prison in New Brunswick in connection with the 2016shooting deaths of Tyler Richards andNaricho Clayton.

Halifax Regional Police said in a news releasethe man is being questioned as a suspect in connection with the two homicides and the April 2016 shooting of a 31-year-old man who survived.

Police arrested the suspect at the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., this morning.

Richards, 29, and Clayton, 23, were shot and killed within two days of each other in April 2016.

Richards, a former St. Francis Xavier University basketball star and ex-Halifax Rainmen player,was found dead in a house on Cook Avenue in Halifax.

Clayton was shot to death on Gottingen Street near Falkland Street in Halifax's north end.A 31-year-old manwas seriously injured in the same shooting.

Police said at the time they believed the deaths were connected.

'Person of interest' scheduled to leave prison

The Parole Board of Canada has previously said Tyrell Peter Dechamp, who was convicted of second-degree murder for a 2009 stabbing,was a "person of interest" in the two shootings.

He was due to be released from prison today after completing his entire sentence for the 2009 stabbing and a 2011 aggravated assault.

Halifax Regional Police would not say Fridaywhether or not Dechamp is the suspect they arrested.

When Richards and Clayton were killed,Dechamp was on a statutory release from prison after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

Police issued a Canada-wide warrant for him on April 20, 2016the day after Clayton's deathafter Dechampfailed to return to his Halifax halfway house the night before. He was arrested April 28, 2016, in Ottawa. In August of that year, the parole board revoked his statutory release.

Police recently searching for evidence

Three weeks ago, a police dive team scoured a pond in Dartmouth, N.S., for a weapon that might be related to Richards's death.

At the time, police said they found evidence tied to the case in a wooded area near Red Pond Bridge in Dartmouth.They also asked the public to come forward with any new information about the case.

In May2016, Nova Scotia's Department of Justice added theRichards and Claytonhomicidesto the major unsolved crimes program. They said they'd offer upto $150,000 for information on each of the cases.