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Murder charges laid in Nanaimo shooting that left two dead

Murder charges have been laid against the 47-year-old former mill worker who allegedly shot four people at the Western Forest Products sawmill Wednesday morning, killing two men.

Murder charges have been laid against the 47-year-old former mill worker who allegedly shot four people at the Western Forest Products sawmill Wednesday morning, killing two men.

Kevin Douglas Addison of Nanaimo has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Addison was charged by telebail Wednesday night and is set to appear in Nanaimo Provicial Court this morning.

Nanaimo RCMP have confirmed the two men who died are 61-year-old Michael John Lunn and 53-year-old Fred James McEachern.

The gunman opened fire at the Western Forest Products sawmill in Nanaimo on Wednesday morning, first shooting a man in the parking lot and then shooting three others in the sawmill office.


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The alleged gunman is a former employee of the mill and is in custody at the Nanaimo RCMP detachment. 

Nanaimo RCMP said multiple 911 calls came in at 6:58 a.m. Mounties, including an emergency-response team member who was on shift, arrived at the scene within three minutes. The gunman surrendered peacefully and a shotgun was seized.

Police locked down the building and searched for other threats but no other suspects were found.

All four victims were taken to hospital. Two were pronounced dead.

Family have confirmed that Lunn was an employee with Western Forest Products since 1980.

“All they would tell us at the police department, we had to go down there, [was] that he had passed,” said Lunn’s sister, Linda Bledsoe. “He died at the scene.”

“It’s just … it’s unexplainable.” Lunn was the only boy in a family of seven sisters and loved his job at the mill, Bledsoe said. “We were all very close,” she said. “None of us are feeling anything right now.”

McEachern, who lived in Nanaimo, was also killed. A family member who answered the phone at his home said: “Us and the other families are grieving and we’d like to have some privacy at this time.”

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Workers console each other outside the Western Forest Products mill in Nanaimo.
Photo: Darren Stone, Times Coloni
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Police believe the gunman was acting alone, said Nanaimo RCMP detachment commander Supt. Mark Fisher.

Two men remain in hospital with gunshot wounds.

The shooting victim airlifted to Victoria General Hospital remains in critical condition today.

His family has requested privacy, said Island Health spokeswoman Val Wilson.

Another man, Tony Sudar, was taken to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. According to an Island Health spokesperson, he was discharged from hospital on Thursday. Sudar is the company’s vice-president of manufacturing.

“This type of extreme violence is extremely rare,” Fisher said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. He said it was too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting.

Crying family members gathered outside the mill after news of the shooting broke, awaiting word on whether their loved ones were involved.

Jim Gallant, a longtime mill employee, was at work Wednesday morning when the shootings began. His wife, Shelly McKenze, said she received a text from him indicating he was OK, but employees were told by police at the time they could not leave the building. Employees were later sent home for the day.

Joe Kaila, who works at the mill, said he was outside when he heard a loud explosive noise. “All I heard was a big bang. I thought one of the gas tanks blew up,” he said as he left the site.

“First I thought it was a shotgun, then I said, no. … Everybody was shocked.”

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Investigators gather evidence at the Western Forest Products mill in Nanaimo.
Photo: Darren Stone, Times Colonist

Nanaimo RCMP’s serious- crime investigators and forensic investigators will continue to collect evidence at the sawmill over the coming days, Fisher said.

“My sympathies, and that of all of us at the Nanaimo RCMP, go out to the families and loved ones of all the victims,” Fisher said. “The families and mill employees will now have to cope with the tragedy that unfolded here today, as does the community of Nanaimo.”

About 75 people work at the mill, which is on Port Drive along Nanaimo’s waterfront assembly wharf at the edge of its downtown. The mill processes wood products for export around the world.

Don Demens, CEO of Western Forest Products, confirmed the suspect is a former employee but would not say if the man had been laid off or speculate on what motivated the shooting.

In 2009 and 2010, about 700 people were laid off as the company restructured.

There is ongoing arbitration between the United Steelworkers union and Western Forest Products over the company’s alleged refusal to pay severance to laid off employees.

Demens said grief counsellors have been brought in to assist mill workers and family members.

“The safety and security of our employees is paramount,” Demens said at the news conference. “We will continue to co-operate fully with all authorities and will determine additional next steps in the hours ahead. We will do whatever we can for our injured colleagues and for those who have been affected by this tragic event.”

All Western Forest Products operations on the Island were shut down out of respect for the victims, Demens said.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark released a statement Wednesday offering her sympathies. “This kind of tragedy is almost unknown in British Columbia. Most of us here today cannot imagine what the victims and their families must be going through,” she said.

“They should know they are not alone. The people of British Columbia are standing with them.”

NDP Leader Adrian Dix, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent messages of condolences to the victims via social media.

There have been other workplace shootings in B.C. A Vancouver man, Eric Kirkpatrick, shot and killed his former boss at an office Christmas party in 2008, a day after he was fired. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years for killing Ben Banky.

In 2002, Dick Anderson shot and killed two colleagues — Jim McCracken and David Mardon — at a government office in Kamloops after telling colleagues he was overwhelmed by his workload.

Additional reporting by Cara McKenna/Nanaimo Daily News; with a file from Vancouver Sun

kderosa@timescolonist.com

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Forensics investigators gather evidence from a truck at the Western Forest Products Mill in Nanaimo.
Chad Hipolito, The Canadian Press