EDMONTON — Investigators in Edmonton say a home where seven people were found dead earlier this week was likely the suspect's first stop before moving on to kill at another city residence.
Police spokesman Scott Pattison says the northside Edmonton home, where two men, three women and two young children were discovered dead, is now believed to be where the shocking rampage began.
Police were first alerted about another shooting on the city's south side on Monday night where a woman was found dead, but Pattison says investigators now think that was the second crime scene.
The suspect was found dead by his own hand in a restaurant in the Edmonton bedroom community of Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday morning.
Autopsies on the victims were taking place on New Year's Day.
Pattison says investigators think the seven bodies in the first home had been dead for some time.
"That's what we believe based on the timelines of the calls that came in," Pattison said.
Cyndi Duong, 37, was fatally shot in the home in south Edmonton. The two men and three woman in the northside home were between the ages of 25 and 50. The girl and a boy in that home who were found dead with them were both under the age of 10.
Duong was married with three children, two boys 14 and 10, and had an eight-year-old girl.
An hour and a half after police said they were called to the home where Duong was found, they said they were called to the northside home regarding a report of a suicidal man who family members reported was "depressed and over-emotional."
No one answered the door when they arrived and noting suspicious was found, but police returned to the home hours later when they received more information, and that's when the carnage was discovered.
It was the same home where a suspect had been arrested in November 2012 and charged with domestic and sexual assault.
Police have described the killings as calculated and fuelled by domestic troubles.
Police have only said the man who killed himself in the restaurant had a business interest in the place. They said he had a criminal record involving drugs and violence dating to 1987 and that he used a stolen handgun in the murders.
Police have not identified the suspect, but acquaintances say he is 53-year-old Phu Lam, who did maintenance work at the VN Express Asian restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan.
Investigators said they were waiting for autopsy results to positively identify the shooter and the victims, other than Duong.
Pattison said Thursday that they didn't anticipate those results would be available until a later date.
