A Penticton resident said one of the men who was fatally shot in Penticton was the type of guy to pull up a barstool and have a good chat with.
Rudi Winter was one of four people, two men and two women, who were murdered on Monday.
READ MORE: Four dead, one in custody falling Penticton shooting spree
“I knew him a little bit, he was part of a group of regulars that would hang out at Bar One and have a beer. He was a bit of fixture there that after a day at work he would be there or would show up,” said Daryl Clarke, vice chair of the Penticton Industrial Development Association.
Clarke said he last saw Winter about two weeks ago and described him as being a “nice guy.”
“No one deserves this to happen to them, especially over a trivial thing like a neighbourhood argument,” said Clarke, who added that the last time he spoke with Winter it seemed as though everything was fine in his world.
On Tuesday, John Brittain was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder as a result of the incidents that occurred on April 15.
READ MORE: Penticton man charged with murder following shooting spree
Supt. Ted De Jager said four people were found dead in three locations within a five-kilometre radius. RCMP confirmed that it was two men and two women that were killed.
Clarke said he was at a self-serve bottled water business just up the street from where the first shooting took place.
“I heard shots and a woman scream and thought someone had been shot. I jumped in my vehicle right away and went home, just around the corner and about 30 seconds later heard the sirens,” said Clarke.
Clarke has lived in Penticton for almost 30 years and is shocked by the incident.
“It makes feel sick that this happened in a town the size of Penticton. I have lived here since 1990, things like this don’t happen in Penticton,” he said. “I think police did a phenomenal job dealing with shootings at both ends of town and something else going on at a motel.”
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