Residents of a tiny community on Arrow Lakes are coming to grips with a shooting that left two men dead on Monday night.
“The reaction is quite mournful,” said Paul Peterson, the local area director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
The shooting in Needles, 60 kilometres south of Nakusp, took the lives of two men. Locals say one was 83-year-old Ron Volansky, a long-time resident.
GlobalBC identified the other man as 58-year-old Roy Bugera.
RCMP were called to the settlement on Monday night, after shots were heard. Officers from an emergency response team entered the homes of the two neighours, and found a dead man in each.
Police have not said if they consider the incident a murder-suicide, but were not looking for suspects.
Meanwhile, the community is left to deal with the violence that struck so suddenly.
Peterson says he didn’t know Bugera, but Volansky was a long-time resident of the area and was a ‘well-respected and well-liked businessman.”
“He was very generous in volunteering himself and his equipment to the community. He was a big part of helping build the local golf course,” recalled Peterson.
Community members contacted by Arrow Lakes News said Volansky grew up in the area, ran a successful logging company, built the local motel back in the 1960s, and still has several children living in the Arrow Lakes area.
“For those of us who knew the family, it’s really hard,” said one friend.
The RCMP Southeast District Major Crimes Unit and BC Coroners are continuing their investigations.
