Man charged in deaths of Tyler Richards, Naricho Clayton

A 27-year-old man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 2016 shooting deaths ofTyler Richards andNarichoClayton in Halifax.

Tyrell PeterDechampof Halifax is also facing a charge of attempted murder forshooting a man who was 31 years old at the time of the incident,Halifax Regional Police said in a statement released Saturday morning.

Dechampwas arrested on Fridayat the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B.

Police said they took him back to Halifax on Friday. Dechamp is scheduled to appear in Halifax provincial court on Monday to face the charges.

Deaths connected

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

Police say Richards, who was a formerSt. Francis Xavier University basketball star and ex-Halifax Rainmen player,was found dead in a house on Cook Avenue in Halifax on April 17, 2016.

Two days later, police responded to shots fired on GottingenStreet and found two men inside a vehicle. Clayton, who was from Dartmouth,was pronounced dead at the scene and a 31-year-old man sustained life-threatening injuries.

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

Dechamphas criminal history

At the time of the shootings,Dechampwas on a statutory release from prison.

Dechamp was convicted of murder in 2009 for the Oct. 15, 2007, stabbing death of Matthew James Ayre on Gottingen Street.

He was sentenced under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Due to his age, his identity was protected at the time.

However, his identity became public in 2012 for an aggravated assault he committed in 2011 as an adult.

Police issued a Canada-wide warrant for him on April 20, 2016 the day after Clayton's death after Dechamp failed to return to his Halifax halfway house the night before.

Finishing prison sentence this week

He was arrested April 28, 2016, in Ottawa. In August 2016, the parole board revoked his statutory release.

Dechamp was dueto be released from prison Friday, after completing his entire sentence for the 2007 stabbing and the 2011 aggravated assault.

Halifax Regional Police Supt.Jim Perrinsaid at a news conference on Saturday that police have been actively investigating the case over the last year.

Perrinwould not say anything about the motive, any evidence collected or why police laid charges now, but confirmed that all parties were known to each other.

"Recently, we got ...to the point where we were comfortable to make the arrest ... I can't get into the details," he said.

"Laying of a first-degree murder charge, it's the most serious charge that the police investigate and we want to make sure that our case is as strong as possible before we advance it to that point."

Investigation ongoing

Police said Dechampwillalso be facing a chargeof being unlawfully at large in relation to the Canada-wide arrest warrant that was issued in April 2016.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with more information is asked to contact police.

"We are open to the possibility that other people may have been involved [in the murders],"Perrinsaid.

Quentrel Provo, who founded the group Stop the Violence, grew upknowningClayton and his familyin North Preston, N.S. He later becamefriends with Richards through the basketball community and described him as a "chill, laid-back guy, really good guy, who would help anyone."

Provo said both men left behind young children who will now grow up not knowing their fathers.

'It's not going to be closure'

"It's hard seeing those things ...They lost their lives due to senseless acts of violence, but their legacy lives on through their families," he said.

"Hopefully, we can hope and pray that their family gets comfort, some sort of comfort, going through this tough time. "

Provo said charges more than 1 yearsafter their deaths is a "step forward," but the beginning of a long court process for the men's families.

"Sometimes cases go unsolved," he said."It's a start,but it's not going to be closure. You can't bring back Tyler Richards, you can't bring back Naricho Clayton."