NANAIMO, B.C. - An RCMP officer who responded to an active shooter call at a Vancouver Island sawmill described a frantic race to the scene, then finding blood, bodies and an emotionless man sitting on top of a sawed-off shotgun in the company office.
Nanaimo RCMP Const. David Buchanan testified at the murder trial of Kevin Addison Thursday, saying it took him less than three minutes to arrive at the Western Forest Products mill on the Nanaimo, British Columbia waterfront. The shooting had already stopped and shortly afterwards Addison was arrested without resistance, Buchanan said.
Mill employees Michael Lunn and Fred McEachern died in the shooting rampage, while Tony Sudar and Earl Kelly were shot but survived on April 30, 2014.
Addison, 49, a former employee at the mill, is accused of two charges each of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
David Buchanan told the B.C. Supreme Court trial he was the second officer at the scene after responding to the 911 dispatch and was expecting “chaos.”
He said he stopped at the mill parking lot where he saw a man on the ground receiving aid.
“I observed a male lying on his back,” said Buchanan. “I could see one male completing chest compressions. I could see a large amount of coagulating blood underneath his body. Toward his right arm blood was pooling.
Crown prosecutors said the trial will hear evidence that Lunn was hit by a single shotgun blast to his back right arm moments after stepping out of his vehicle at the mill parking lot.
Buchanan testified he walked into the dark company office knowing his colleague Const. Paul Minkley was already inside.
“I yelled out to Paul,” said Buchanan. “I could hear Paul say, they were down there.”
He said he helped Minkley put handcuffs on Addison and walked him to his police vehicle.
“He was emotionless, quiet,” said Buchanan. “He was able to get up on his own accord.”
He said the only emotion shown by Addison was about 30 minutes later at the Nanaimo RCMP office when he threw his head back once and made a “grimace.”
The trial has heard that McEachern and Kelly were shot in the back and Sudar in the face.
The Crown said the trial will hear that McEachern and two other employees, Andrew Vanger and Ed Good, were able to subdue Addison in the office.
McEachern later died of his injuries.
Buchanan said he searched Addison at the scene and found a live shotgun shell in one of his pockets.
Blue jeans that Addison had been wearing on the day of the shootings were shown as evidence Thursday with focus on a modified right pocket, which the Crown said could be used to conceal a weapon.
Members of the Lunn and McEachern families have been present in the courtroom.