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Gun used in Edmonton mass murder was stolen in Surrey

Seven adults and two children were killed in what police are calling an extreme case of domestic violence.
10178surreyEdmontonMemorial
A memorial grows outside an Edmonton home where seven bodies were found Monday

The nine people killed in Edmonton in late December were shot with a gun stolen from Surrey in 2006, police in Alberta say.

On Monday (Dec. 29) at 6:52 p.m., Edmonton police responded to a weapons complaint at a residence. When they arrived, they found a woman dead.

A few hours later, they received a call about a suicidal man and responded to an address – only to find seven people who had been shot. They included three women, two men and two children (a boy and a girl).

In total, six adults between the ages of 25 and 55, and two children under 10 years old, were found in two separate residences that evening.

Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht called the scene horrific.

“In my 39 years of policing, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

The suspected gunman has been identified as Phu Lam, 53.

A man of the same name appeared on unpublished charges in Surrey and Squamish in 1999.

On Dec. 29, homicide detectives later located Lam dead at a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan, located 40 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

“This male suspect is well-known to the Edmonton Police Service and has a criminal record dating back to 1987,” Knecht said.

The suspect in the shootings was the subject of previous complaints at the second home in 2012, when he was charged with offences related to domestic violence, sexual assault and uttering threats, Knecht said.

The coroner’s service determined all victims died of gunshot wounds.

The victims were Thuy Tien Truong, 35, Elvis Lam, 8, Than Ha Thi Truong, 33,  Valentina Nguyen, 3, Thi Dau Le, 55, Van Dang Truong, 55, Viet Nguyen, 41, and Cyndi Duong, 37.

Lam died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

Knecht characterized the incident an extreme case of domestic violence.

The 9-mm handgun used in the killings, he said, was registered in B.C. in 1997 and reported stolen from Surrey in 2006.