Deadly shots fired in Penticton were ‘very targeted’
Retired city engineer faces murder charges
PENTICTON, B.C. • Daniel Kenward lives a few houses down from where the first shooting occurred, at Lakeview Street and Heales Avenue, in Penticton, a small city of 30,000 in the B.C. Interior.
After he heard gunshots Monday morning, he saw a man lying on the grass outside. He was on his back, between a chain-link fence and the side of a duplex. He appeared to be older, with white or grey hair.
About 45 minutes later, Kenward heard a sound of “anguish,” and his wife looked out the window and saw an older woman hugging someone.
“I don’t know what her relationship was to him or anything like that. I just know she was upset. You know that sound,” Kenward said.
The gunman got in his car and drove the short distance to Cornwall Drive. He shot a man and a woman in one home, and a woman in the house next door.
Then he drove to the RCMP station and turned himself in. He was unarmed, police said.
From the time of the report of the first shooting at 10:30 a.m., an hour had elapsed.
The alleged shooter, the police said Tuesday, is a 68-year-old retired engineer for the city named John Brittain.
“He was a gentleman. He did his job well,” Mayor John Vassilaki said. “He was very in favour of what our community was doing, was always involved in community matters, him and his wife.”
Vassilaki said he worked for the city between 2011 and 2016, retiring because of illness. Since 2017 he has worked as a senior civil engineer for Ecora, an engineering and research group.
Brittain has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder.
In court on Tuesday morning, Brittain at one point during the proceedings took off his glasses and looked into the public gallery.
He is expected to make his next court appearance May 8.
RCMP Supt. Ted De Jager said the four victims were in their 60s and 70s, but police were not releasing any further information about them.
He said police are trying to determine a motive, but the shootings were targeted. The accused and the victims knew each other, he added.
“It’s very targeted. We don’t know the motive behind it all, but we do know all of the individuals were known to each other. So in that regard, it wasn’t random. It wasn’t somebody just walking down the street with a rifle.”
De Jager did not reveal the type of weapon used, although witnesses said it was a rifle.
Rudi Winter, 71, was identified by his wife as one of the victims. Renate Winters told the Penticton Herald he was shot about 10:30 a.m. outside a duplex where he was doing maintenance work for a friend.
The Winters’ home at 2447 Cornwall Dr., is on the same block as the other three shootings.
Renate Winters said she had a frosty relationship with the suspect’s estranged wife, who owns a home on Cornwall Drive, according to city records.
“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 Winters. “She called the cops because my husband was putting rocks in between our properties, and maybe his big toe went on her property.”
Darlene Knippelberg, 74. who lived at 2386 Cornwall Dr., was identified as a victim by her son.
“I can’t really tell you anything. I have to wait for a bit,” said Gary Knippelberg. “The RCMP really haven’t told us anything. I am just trying to deal with this.” His father died in 2015. Of his parents, he said: “They were unique. And that’s something awesome to have in parents. This is a devastating thing.”
Knippelberg, who lives just a kilometre away from his mother, said he does not know Brittain.
“They are trying to say everything is linked, but I didn’t know him (Brittain),” he said.
The couple were shot at a residence at 2400 Cornwall Dr., next door to Darlene Knippelberg’s home. According to land title records, the home at 2400 Cornwall Dr. belongs to Susan and Barry Wonch.
“Unfortunately, I can’t speak up to the actual events that led up to this and that is part of the investigation,” said De Jager, who wouldn’t elaborate on the relationship between the victims and the accused.
A vigil was being held in Penticton at 6 p.m. Tuesday.