Mass murder + suicide in Edmonton (6 Adults / 2 Children)

[Presto]

Police have found nine people dead at three separate locations in Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan, one by an apparent suicide.

"It is a tragic day for Edmonton and our thoughts go out to the community as we all come to terms with the senseless mass murder of eight people," Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht said at an afternoon news conference.

Edmonton Deaths
Police investigate at a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., on Tuesday. The scene is said to be related to multiple deaths that occurred in a north Edmonton home overnight. (Jason Franson/Canadian Press)

​Knecht said the first body, that of a middle-aged woman, was found by police officers responding to a weapons complaint in south Edmonton around 6:53 p.m. Monday. A man entered the home and shot the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Police then received a call to check on the welfare of a man at a home located at 83rd Street and 180 Avenue in north Edmonton.

"According to family, the male seemed depressed and overly emotional," Knecht said. "The family was concerned that the male may be suicidal."

When police arrived, the man wasn't there, Knecht said. Then at 12:23 a.m., police went back to the home and discovered the bodies of seven people: three women, two men and two children – a boy and a girl.

At 2:20 a.m., police went to a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan. There they found a vehicle matching the description of the one owned by the suicidal male, who had a connection to the restaurant.

The man was found dead inside when police entered the restaurant at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. Knecht said the man died in an apparent suicide. He said police are not looking for other suspects in the slayings.

"This series of events are not believed to be random acts and there is no risk to the broader public," he said. "And these events do not appear to be gang-related but rather tragic incidents of domestic violence."

Police have not released any names or the relationships between the victims and the man who committed suicide. Knecht said this was the biggest mass murder in Edmonton since six people were slain in 1956. He plans to hold another news conference at 9 p.m. MT Tuesday.

Mercedes SUV parked outside
People in Fort Saskatchewan became aware of the police presence early Tuesday morning. The downtown core of the city northeast of Edmonton was closed. The area has reopened, but police tape remained around the VN Express Vietnamese and Chinese Restaurant.

A Mercedes SUV with a smashed side window was parked outside.

Fort Saskatchewan resident Bonnie Peet first noticed police around 6 a.m.

“My whole road in front of my place was blocked off, so I knew something was going on and then it got lighter out ...and you see police going up and down the alleys," she said.

Another resident said that a helicopter could be heard circling overhead early Tuesday morning.

People who live next to the home in north Edmonton say a woman, a grandmother and two school-aged children lived there.

Resident Maria Melo said it's the kind of community where people say hi to one another.

"We don't visit or nothing, but it's just a good neighbourhood. It's so sad to hear about that family. It's really very sad," she said.

RCMP are also investigating a death in an industrial area near Sherwood Park where a body was found in a burned-out vehicle on Tuesday morning. It does not appear to be related to the other crimes
source: Edmonton mass murder: 6 adults, 2 children dead - Edmonton - CBC News

2014 can't be over soon enough, it seems.

[Yodamaster]

Something about this seems wrong, the shooter must have felt poorly towards the people he killed, otherwise I don't see the point in killing them if all you are is suicidal.

[68style]

Oilers fan. I get sad when the Canucks lose too... Sometimes even violent... But damn bra it's just a game in the end right?

[bossha]

Originally Posted by 68style

Oilers fan. I get sad when the Canucks lose too... Sometimes even violent... But damn bra it's just a game in the end right?

You're hilarious making a dumb joke over the death of 8 people

[underscore]

This is such a sad thing to read, especially about the children. May they all rest in peace.

Slightly off topic, but that note at the end about a body in a burned out vehicle is a bit weird. Is that a common occurrence or something? Because a body was found in a burned out vehicle by my parents place in Ontario a few months back and a body was found in a burned out vehicle right by my house this month.

[68style]

Originally Posted by bossha

You're hilarious making a dumb joke over the death of 8 people

It's called pessimism, because it's pointless to comment on stories like this constructively. You can't stop or plan for crazy ass people, but go ahead let's have a 10 page thread of amateur sociologist theories of what could have been done to avert this terrible tragedy and how everyone else's life needs to change and/or be impeded because of one psycho. It shall be riveting.

[Gucci Mane]

i already posted this in the shootings thread. wasn't sure if it was worth its own thread or not..

[multicartual]

I really don't want to know the details.

[zilley]

Originally Posted by Knight_KB

i already posted this in the shootings thread. wasn't sure if it was worth its own thread or not..

and your point is?

you saw this first?

[Gucci Mane]

yes.

[Presto]

Update:

Edmonton murders 'a horrific event' linked to domestic violence
Shock and sadness pervade Edmonton today after a man shot and killed six adults and two children and then himself, as authorities try to determine what led to the city's worst mass killing in recent history.

Police say the apparent gunman, who had a criminal record dating back to 1987, used a stolen 9-mm handgun in what police Chief Rod Knecht called "an extreme case of domestic violence."

The six adults, between ages 25 and 50, and two children under age 10 were found in two separate residences in Edmonton on Monday night.

The man linked to the shootings was found dead by suicide in a restaurant in the nearby city of Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday morning.

"It was chaotic. It's horrific," Knecht said at a news conference Tuesday night. "This is a horrific event for the city … in my 39 years of policing, I've never seen anything like it."

He said the slayings were "planned and deliberate," and stressed there was no evidence of gang links.

"In this season of peace and goodwill, this act of violence is all the more difficult to comprehend. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those involved at this very difficult time," said Alberta Premier Jim Prentice.



The first body, now identified as Cyndi Duong, 37, was found by police responding to a weapons complaint in south Edmonton around 6:53 p.m. MT Monday. A man had entered the home and shot the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Police then received a call to check on a man at a home at 83rd Street and 180 Avenue in north Edmonton.

"According to family, the male seemed depressed and overly emotional," Knecht said. "The family was concerned that the male may be suicidal."

When police arrived, the man wasn't there, Knecht said. Then at 12:23 a.m., police went back to the home and discovered the bodies of seven people: three women, two men and two children – a boy and a girl.

A memorial of flowers and gifts outside that home was growing larger on Wednesday morning.

Neighbour Moe Assiff said he saw officers come out and talk to a woman sitting with a man in a white car outside the house.

"She just let out a hysterical scream. It was eerie," Assiff said. "She was screaming about her kids: 'My kids! The kids!,' grabbing her hair and trying to pull her hair out. The cops then ushered her down the road into a police cruiser."

The identities of the other seven people found dead won't be released until autopsies are performed. The autopsies, including on the apparent gunman, are scheduled for Thursday.

"It's still shock here," reported CBC's Erin Collins from Edmonton. "People are trying to process it and everyone has questions about what motivated this and what could have led to this kind of tragedy."

At 2:20 a.m. Tuesday, police went to a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan where they found a vehicle matching the description of the one driven by the suicidal male. The SUV was the same vehicle seen in the south Edmonton neighbourhood on Monday night, and was missing from the north Edmonton home.

Knecht did not release the name of the suspect, but said the man was found dead inside when police entered the restaurant at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. Knecht said the man died in an apparent suicide. He said police are not looking for other suspects in the slayings.

Gun stolen in 2006

Police have not described the relationships between the people who died and the man who committed suicide.

Knecht said there hasn't been a mass killing of this scale in Edmonton, a city of about 878,000 where mass killings are rare, since at least 1956.

That year, John Etter Clark, a provincial politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for four years, killed his wife, son, three daughters and an employee of their family farm before taking his own life. Clark had been suffering from frequent nervous breakdowns in the years before the killings.



The gun used in the slayings this week was registered in British Columbia in 1997 and stolen from Surrey in 2006. Knecht said the apparent gunman had a business interest in the restaurant where he was found dead.

Knecht said officers had gone to the north Edmonton home twice: once this year and once in November 2012, when a man was charged with domestic violence, sexual assault and uttering threats.

Knecht also explained why police didn't enter the north Edmonton home when police were first called there. He said officers walked around the house but couldn't get in.

“They looked in windows, they checked a door and they weren’t able to get a response," he said. "We can't just arbitrarily go into that residence."

Later, they received a call from someone which gave them grounds to enter the home. That's when they found the seven bodies.

Neighbours heard fighting

People in Fort Saskatchewan became aware of the police presence early Tuesday morning. The downtown core of the city northeast of Edmonton was closed. The area has reopened, but police tape remained around the VN Express Vietnamese and Chinese Restaurant.

A Mercedes SUV with a smashed side window was parked outside.

Fort Saskatchewan resident Bonnie Peet first noticed police around 6 a.m.

“My whole road in front of my place was blocked off, so I knew something was going on and then it got lighter out ...and you see police going up and down the alleys," she said.

Another resident said that a helicopter could be heard circling overhead early Tuesday morning.

A woman who works at a restaurant across the street said she saw police drive a tactical unit through the restaurant door.

People who live next to the home in north Edmonton say a woman, a grandmother and two school-aged children lived there. The neighbours said they heard domestic arguments inside the home next door. Once they heard a man and woman fighting in the street.

"We knew the ex-husband didn't live there anymore," neighbour Murray Schermack said.

Resident Maria Melo said it's the kind of community where people say hi to one another.



"We don't visit or nothing, but it's just a good neighbourhood," she said."It's so sad to hear about that family. It's really very sad."

In the Haddow community in south Edmonton, where the first person was killed, residents expressed concern for the children who lived in the home. The three children often played with others in the neighbourhood.

Police said they are in a safe place.

"We're all disturbed by it and wondering about how the family is doing," said another resident, Frank Engley.

[Presto]

Another update: Killer Identity Released(same link as previous post)

The man responsible for killing eight people, including two children, in Edmonton’s worst mass killing in recent history has been identified by sources as Phu Lam, 53

Six adults, between ages 25 and 50, and two children under age 10 were found in two separate residences in Edmonton on Monday night.

Lam is listed as the co-owner of the north Edmonton home where seven of the dead were found. Police say Lam's body was found Tuesday morning at a restaurant in nearby Fort Saskatchewan. It appeared he had committed suicide.

Chau Tran, the owner of the VN Express restaurant, told CBC News on Wednesday that she was Lam’s former common-law spouse.

She said Lam was doing maintenance work at the restaurant and may have had a key. She said that Lam had remarried, but didn’t know anything about his new family.

Police said Lam had a criminal record dating back to 1987, and used a stolen 9-mm handgun in what police Chief Rod Knecht called "an extreme case of domestic violence."

[Presto]

Victims ID'd, and more details:

Edmonton Police have named the eight victims of the city's worst mass murder in recent history. They also confirmed that they were shot and killed by Phu Lam, 53.

The victims are:

• Thuy-Tien Truong, 35, partner of Phu Lam
• Elvis Lam, 8, son of Thuy-Tien Truong
• Thanh Ha Thi Truong, 33, sister of Thuy Tien Truong
• Valentina Nguyen, 3, daughter of Thuy Tien Truong
• ​Thi Dau Le, 55, mother of Thuy Tien and Thanh Ha Thi Truong
• Van Dang Truong, 55, estranged husband of Thi Dau Le and father of Thuy Tien and Thanh Ha Thi Truong
• Viet Nguyen, 41, friend of Thuy Tien Truong
• Cyndi Duong, 37. Police believe she was not the intended victim of the shooter

Earlier on Friday, court documents showed that Phu Lam, the man believed responsible for last week's mass shooting, threatened to kill his wife and her whole family in 2012.

His wife gave the testimony in an emergency protection hearing in November 2012.

The documents say that Lam learned through genetic tests that he was not the biological father of his son, who was born in 2006.

His wife said that Lam physically abused and choked her on Nov. 2, 2012, after presenting the DNA results to her parents.

Following a hearing four days later, she was granted an emergency protection order that prevented Lam from going within 200 metres of her parents' home and not to have direct contact with her, her son, her sister and her parents.

In her video testimony, she said Lam planned to kill her whole family two weeks earlier and kept making the threats. He was going to look for a gun, but no one would sell one to him, she said.

She testified through a interpreter that he had abused and choked her several times throughout their marriage; at one point she said she nearly died. He also terrorized her with threats.

"He would threaten her to say that he would give her the phone, tell her to call the cops and then kill her on the spot so when the cops come that they would be there to pick up her body," the interpreter said.

She testified that she wanted to move back with her parents.

The protection order was granted until Nov. 26, but extended into January 2013. The order was revoked when neither Lam nor his wife appeared in court for a review on Jan. 18, 2013, the expiry date on the order.

Lam was charged with assault, sexual assault and seven counts of uttering death threats in November 2012 but the charges were stayed on Dec. 21, 2012.

Statements in 2012 case recanted

In a statement, Michelle Doyle, acting assistant deputy minister of the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, said the prosecutors concluded that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction after the complainant and witnesses recanted or changed their original statements made to police.

"The Crown opposed Mr. Lam’s release from custody, and his release was denied by a Provincial Court Judge," Doyle said.

"The investigation into these allegations was conducted by members of the Edmonton Police Service. It was thorough and comprehensive. All available supports were offered and made available to the complainants in this matter."

Lam, who was 53 when he died, came to Canada from Vietnam in 1979. He met his wife, who was 18 years younger, on a trip to Vietnam in 2000. The couple married six months later and she came to Canada in 2003.

Problems included financial ones

Documents reveal that Lam also had significant financial problems.

He filed for bankruptcy in February 2013 with $365,000 in secured debt and $116,296 in unsecured debt, mostly from more than a dozen credit cards.

Documents list gambling as the cause. Lam completed an intensive gambling recovery program in May 2014.

Six adults, between ages 25 and 50, and two children under age 10 were found in two separate Edmonton homes Monday night and early Tuesday morning.

Lam was found dead of an apparent suicide in a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday morning.

Seven of the eight victims have not yet been identified by police. But until recently, a boy lived in the home where Lam resided with his wife and their children.

Cyndi Duong, 37, was identified by police as one of the victims, following an autopsy Tuesday.

Autopsies on Lam and the remaining victims were performed Thursday. Police plan to provide an update at 3 p.m. MT.

[Mining]

Police entered restaurant at 2:20am and found his dead body at 8:45am? what happened to those 6 hours?

[ziggyx]

I think you might have misread it. The police went to the restaurant at 2:20 am but they didn't enter it until 8:45 am. For those 6 hours they were probably being cautious or scoping out the scene? I'm not sure.

[InvisibleSoul]

His hate caused him to kill his partner and son. His crazy caused him to kill her extended family as well.

[multicartual]

The documents say that Lam learned through genetic tests that he was not the biological father of his son, who was born in 2006.

His wife said that Lam physically abused and choked her on Nov. 2, 2012, after presenting the DNA results to her parents.


Mommy's Little Secret - Paternity Fraud statistics Canada Globe and Mail 14DEC02


"As families gather this festive season, here is a spicy fact that mothers might be loath to dish out at the holiday table: It's now widely accepted among those who work in genetics that roughly 10 per cent of us are not fathered by the man we believe to be dad."



Remember Steve Nash? He dumped his wife a day after she gave birth. The baby came out black.

Steve Nash Child Support: Lakers Star Allegedly Doesn't Want To Pay Because Ex Might Spoil Kids (REPORT)

From comments:

1. He has a prenuptial agreement she signed and agreed to, stipulated to in the divorce at the time of the settlement.
2. He pays 90% of the childrens medical bills.
3. He pays 82% of the nanny's month salary.
4. She was having sex with a former teammate of his, Jason Richardson, which he discovered.
5. They were married 5 years and he paid her a $5 Million divorce settlement.
6. She earns $30,000.00 a month as a direct result of his assistance and help.
7. He purchased and deeded the house she lives in to her.

This is what female wiles do to rich men, at least Steve Nash can recover from this incredible humiliation through sports glory and other beautiful women.


This Lam guy... he was fucked. Of course as a man he had next to, if not zero ability, to punish her through legal means. He tried to shame her using her parents and that apparently didn't work. I think paternity fraud is an equal crime to rape.


Not saying I'd kill my wife and her family if I found out my child wasn't mine, buuuuuut...

[Tone Loc]

Originally Posted by multicartual

This is what female wiles do to rich men, at least Steve Nash can recover from this incredible humiliation through sports glory and other beautiful women.


This Lam guy... he was fucked. Of course as a man he had next to, if not zero ability, to punish her through legal means. He tried to shame her using her parents and that apparently didn't work. I think paternity fraud is an equal crime to rape.


Not saying I'd kill my wife and her family if I found out my child wasn't mine, buuuuuut...

This. Welcome to the double standard of the world, and also why I would get a prenuptial agreement before getting married, regardless of how "un-romantic" it seems. I am not saying this Lam Phu guy did the right thing, but it's easy to see *why* he did it... imagine being married to someone for so long and realizing you were deceived by your own wife for 6 whole years. Imagine how you would feel if something so personal and dear as the relationship you have with your child was pretty much revealed to be based on deceit? Especially, as multicartual said, there is nothing - in the legal or financial sense, that is - you can do about it. Everything about this crime is just so appalling.

[trollguy]

Originally Posted by 68style

It's called pessimism, because it's pointless to comment on stories like this constructively. You can't stop or plan for crazy ass people, but go ahead let's have a 10 page thread of amateur sociologist theories of what could have been done to avert this terrible tragedy and how everyone else's life needs to change and/or be impeded because of one psycho. It shall be riveting.

Nice run on sentence bro

[BrRsn]

Originally Posted by slowguy

Nice run-on sentence, bro.

ftfy


edit:

After cross-referencing Webster's Dictionary I have discovered that "run on" sentence should actually be hyphenated.

[trollguy]

Was this their online dictionary or a hard copy?

[BrRsn]

Originally Posted by slowguy

Was this their online dictionary or a hard copy?

Online dictionary, however I will double check with my hard copy when I return to the office (it's currently being fumigated for peasants -- the lower social class, not the animal).


Nothing is quite like caressing the supple leather covers of a high quality dictionary to get one's mojo going. Dare I say, it is almost an erotic experience.

[SoNaRWaVe]

^ the only guy that i know that gets an almost erotic experience from rubbing a dictionary.

[Presto]

Eff.. wrong thread. Don't drink an post, people.

[jackmeister]

Originally Posted by Presto

Hahaha! Guy gets a alternator tatoo'd on his arm, and thinks it's a turbo.