A Kitchener, Ont., man was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday night in connection with the stabbing death of a senior delivering Christmas cards on Saturday.

The 22-year-old man was also charged with assault after another man was attacked while shovelling snow on Monday.

The charged man, whose name has not been released, was arrested earlier in the day in a taxi without incident and was not armed, Insp. Bryan Larkin told CBCNews.ca late Tuesday night.

Hunter Brown, 74, was found dying in a neighbour's driveway after he was attacked with a "sharp-edged object" while handing out cards, police said.

Police released a composite sketch of a suspect earlier Tuesday. Just hours later, they made an arrest.

Larkin added that the man who was arrested didn't know either of the two other men.

A 35-year-old man was shovelling his driveway Monday when he was approached by another man making "negative references" about God. He was then attacked, said Staff Sgt. Adrian Darmon of the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

The man fended him off with his shovel and then ran for help, police said. A resident came to his aid and confronted the attacker, who fled the scene. The man who was shovelling escaped uninjured.

Hand-delivering cards an annual tradition

Neighbours and friends described Brown as a peaceful man who would never turn down a request for money.

Hunter Brown was killed steps away from his home while delivering Christmas cards.
(The Record/Canadian Press)

Handing out Christmas cards door to door had become an annual tradition for Brown, who lived in the community for more than three decades.

Neighbour Bill Hogg said Brown was a friend to everyone in the close-knit neighbourhood.

Brown was a "gentleman, always gracious, … a community-spirited person and a real family man," Hogg told CBC News in an interview.

He called the killing "absolutely appalling," and said the neighbours planned a gathering Tuesday night to try to come to terms with the death.

With files from the Canadian Press