Suspected double murderer Angus David Mitchell, who was killed in a shoot-out with police last week, had a list of people and businesses he was planning to target on his deathly crime spree, RCMP said today.
When he was shot by police last Wednesday on a rural Maple Ridge road, police found in his green van a list of targets that included six people and six businesses, said Insp. Kevin Hackett of the Integrated Homicide Investigations Team.
Had Mitchell not been found, the death toll would have been higher, Hackett said.
Mitchell, a former security guard, shot two people to death inside a Burnaby sushi restaurant on May 27 and then shot and injured his former landlord in Burnaby on May 29.
The former landlord and the woman killed in the Sushi restaurant, Chinh Diem Huynh, were the first targets on his list, Hackett told a press conference today.
The male owner of the sushi restaurant, Huong "Andy" Tran who was also killed, was not on Mitchell's list.
Evidence in Mitchell's vehicle included documents with names, addresses, and escape routes for his other targets. He had past conflicts with these targets, RCMP said.
Some of Mitchell's conflicts dated back to 2009, Sgt. Jennifer Pound said. She said police are looking at seven Lower Mainland areas where Mitchell planned to shoot.
Hackett confirmed that Mitchell used the gun that Victoria Police gave back to him after seizing it last year when Mitchell took it to a doctor's office. Hackett said he doesn't know why Victoria police gave the gun back to Mitchell.
Hackett also thanked the public and media for helping find Angus Mitchell. And he thanked alert Maple Ridge resident Susanne Murphy, who called 911.
Murphy said she was walking her dog when she saw Mitchell's green van. "I was really nervous," she told reporters today.
She called 911 and they told her to stop other walkers in area until police could catch Mitchell.
Just one hour before Murphy called 911, police had warned the public to look out for the older-model Ford van because they believed Mitchell was hiding out in it after shooting his former landlord the night before.
Murphy said she "danced in her car" when she heard that Mitchell had been killed and that lives had been saved.
Hackett said the investigation is still in its early stages, and that more information is still being gathered.
About 20 police officers surrounded Mitchell's vehicle after locating it on the isolated Maple Ridge road, near 216 Street and 132 Avenue, said Ridge Meadows RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh.
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