B.C. SLAYINGS

SHOOTING RAMPAGE LEAVES FOUR DEAD IN PENTICTON.

PENTICTON, B.C. • RCMP say two women and two men were shot to death Monday in three locations within a five-kilometre radius in Penticton.

Supt. Ted de Jager said a 60-year-old man turned himself in at the city’s police headquarters.

The four victims and the person who had turned themselves in were all known to each other, he said.

“We’re still trying to find the motive for this whole incident,” de Jager said. “Indications right now are that all four were targeted.”

renate Winter, the wife of one of the victims – 71-yearold rudi Winter – said the shootings were likely linked to a neighbourhood dispute. She said that she and her husband lived alongside the estranged wife of the man who had turned himself in.

renate said she had a frosty relationship with the estranged wife.

“We cut a tree down in our yard and she had a fit, so anytime we did anything she had a fit, so we don’t talk to her,” said renate. “She called the cops because my husband was putting rocks in between our properties, and maybe his big toe went on her property.”

de Jager said Mounties received a call about a possible shooting at a home in the downtown about 10:30 a.m.

Joyce Brennan, a downtown resident, said she was taking out the recycling sometime between 9:30 and 10 a.m. when she heard the sound of three muffled bangs in the distance.

“But there is a lot of construction going on around us here, so I just assumed it was something to do with that,” said Brennan.

She said her son called a short time later to say someone was killed near her house.

Shelley Halvorson was in her office at J&e Automotive Services Ltd. at around 10:30 a.m. when she heard “pop, pop, pop, pop,” she said.

“All of a sudden, all these cop cars were swarming the area, and an ambulance showed up, and we went outside and I saw a guy laying in the grass,” she said.

The man was laying on the lawn outside a home, she said.

“We were told we had to get back inside because there was a guy — who shot this guy — who was on the loose with a rifle,” Halvorson said.

Three or four officers with rifles and a police dog charged down a nearby side street, while other police officers stayed behind and taped off the area, said Halvorson.

“It was kind of scary,” she said. “It’s a very quiet area, so it’s a little alarming for this to be happening

The suspect then fled to a home at Murray and Cornwall drives, where three more people were shot and killed, according to the Castanet website, a news site covering western Canada.

The suspect drove himself to the local RCMP detachment and turned himself in about 11:30 a.m. local time. As reporters arrived at the police station for a briefing the suspect’s black Volkswagen Jetta was being towed away, Castanet reported.