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Suspect identified in Quebec election rally shooting

Police said a masked man wearing a bathrobe opened fire outside a rally for Quebec’s new separatist premier.Montreal La Presse via Associated Press

MONTREAL — Police on Wednesday interrogated a man accused of opening fire at a midnight victory rally for Quebec’s new separatist premier, but police said the suspect’s rambling statements in French and English yielded no immediate motive for the shooting that left a 48-year-old man dead.

A police official identified the suspect as Richard Henry Bain, 62, from La Conception, Quebec. The police official spoke on condition of anonymity because the suspect has not been charged yet.

Quebec provincial police said a masked gunman wearing a bathrobe opened fire just outside the building where Pauline Marois of the separatist Parti Quebecois was giving her victory speech.

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The gunman was heard shouting ‘‘The English are waking up!’’ in French as police dragged him away.

Marois was whisked off the stage by guards while giving her speech and was not injured.

‘‘I am deeply affected by this but I have to go forward and assume my responsibilities,’’ ­Marois said Wednesday.

Marois, who at 63 became Quebec’s first female premier, called the shooting an isolated event and said it was probably a case of a person who ‘‘has serious health issues.’’

When she first went backstage, Marois said she saw that somebody was wounded and that there was a fire outside, but she thought everything was under control. Police said the suspect lit a small fire before he was arrested.

It was not clear if the gunman was trying to shoot Marois, whose party favors separation from Canada for the French-speaking province.

Lieutenant Guy Lapointe of the provincial police said the suspect was taken to a hospital during the interrogation, but his life was not in danger.

‘‘We can’t establish at this point what the motive or intent was ,’’ Lapointe said.

Police had dealt with the suspect previously for a minor incident, Lapointe said.

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Marois was giving her speech to hundreds of supporters at the Metropolis auditorium. She had declared her conviction that Quebec needs to be a sovereign country before she was pulled off the stage.

‘‘What’s going on?’’ Marois asked her security detail as they dragged her away during the celebration of her party’s victory in Tuesday’s election.

Police initially said the gunman made it into the building but now believe he opened fired just outside in the back alley.

Marois returned to the stage after the shooting and asked the crowd to disperse peacefully, and then seemed to finish her speech. She left the hall amid a tight cordon of provincial police bodyguards.

The last outbreak of major political violence in Quebec occurred in the 1970s when Canadian soldiers were deployed because of a spate of terrorist acts by a group seeking independence.

In 1970, members of the militant FLQ kidnapped and killed Quebec’s labor minister and later abducted, then freed, a British diplomat.