Penticton came to a standstill on Monday as a 60-year-old Penticton man went on a shooting rampage, killing four people.
Police have remained tight-lipped over the killings, which are the deadliest in the city’s history and the sixth deadliest in modern B.C. history.
RCMP told reporters they received their first call at about 10:30 a.m. Monday morning that a man had been shot in a yard.
On a local Facebook group, Ashley Smethurst posted that “the man trimming the tree in my street got shot ….the gunman is still loose running around (and) more shots fired.”
As further calls came in, police cordoned off Eckhardt Avenue and Lakeshore Drive, as well as Main Street and Power Street.
Supt. Ted De Jager said four people were found dead in three locations within a five kilometre radius. Next of kin are still being notified and the names of the four victims will not be released “unless there is an investigative purpose, which right now there is not.”
Police did confirm that two men and two women were shot to death.
The suspect
Witnesses say they saw the alleged shooter walking casually up the street, swinging his gun.
“I came outside to check and see what going on. I saw a guy walking up the street with a gun,” said a witness who did not wished to be named.
“I didn’t think much of it at first when I heard the sounds because there are a few other shops around here so I thought someone was hammering something, then I saw the guy with a gun.”
