Canada Slayings Were Planned, Police Allege

A man who shot and killed his estranged wife and eight in-laws had planned the massacre deliberately, but apparently killed himself only when he realized he could not escape undetected, police in British Columbia said Saturday.

Mark Chahal walked up to the home of his wife’s family Friday as relatives gathered for a wedding Saturday and opened fire--killing the bride-to-be, his wife and seven others.

“He had two guns. One in each hand, just like the old Western-style shooters, blasting away,” said neighbor Rick Young, who was playing outside with his two children. “He was only a few yards away. He turned and looked me in the eye. I thought I was going to die. He had a full opportunity to plug me full of holes. But he just turned away from me and went around again to the back of the house and then fired some shots at the back.”

It was the second-worst massacre in Canada’s history, after the 1989 killing of 14 women at a Montreal university by a gunman who then killed himself.

Chahal, who had threatened his wife since their separation last year, returned to his motel room and shot and killed himself after writing a short apology for the killings, police said.

Chahal had exchanged his own vehicle for a rental van before driving to Vernon, a quiet city of 30,000 about 185 miles northeast of Vancouver. To police, that suggested he intended to flee after the killings.

A 60-year-old woman and a 6-year-old girl were shot but survived. Two children were the only ones to escape the gunman entirely. Police believe he spared them intentionally.

Although Chahal had no criminal record, wife Rajwar Kaur Gakhal had complained about his violent behavior to police at their home in the Vancouver area, and then to police in Vernon when she returned to her family after separating from Chahal in January 1995.

The gunman first shot her, then her parents, their son, a son-in-law and four other daughters, including the intended bride. All were members of a close-knit community of Sikh immigrants from India.

Friends and relatives continued to arrive Saturday for what was to have been a wedding celebration. Police managed to contact the groom Friday as he traveled from Toronto.