By Julie Chadwick

Gun used in Nanaimo mill shooting modified like a ‘street sweeper’

Sep 15, 2016 | 9:44 PM

NANAIMO — A gun like the one found at the mill shooting was of the type that would be used at close range for home defense or in a limited military or police capacity – not sporting, a firearms expert from the RCMP testified today.

After a rampage that killed two men and injured two more at the Nanaimo-based Western Forest Products mill on April 30, 2014, the shooter was subdued and pinned to the ground by several employees. Within minutes, the police arrived and arrested the man.

Just prior to arresting the shooter, Sgt. Paul Minkley of the Nanaimo RCMP said he saw the butt end of a firearm poking out from under the man’s legs as he lay on the floor.

The firearm later recovered from the scene was a Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with a sawed-off barrel and modified stock, said Sgt. Keith Stone, of the RCMP’s forensic identification unit.

Today, firearms expert witness Cpl. Jean-Francois Gelderblom of the RCMP took the stand to further explain these modifications to the jury.

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“In my opinion and my experience a firearm such as this could be used by police or military for breaching, for example. What I mean by ‘breaching’ is to use it as a tool, generally with specialized ammunition, to blow doors off their hinges,” said Gelderblom. “Firearms like this have also been referenced in the criminal underworld as ‘street sweepers,’ so that you can fire many rounds very quickly and you can essentially ‘sweep a street,’ if you will.”

The stock is the wooden part of a rifle or shotgun behind the trigger which can be shouldered and maneuvered when the firearm is used, said Gelderblom, who is highly trained in a wide range of firearms, as a sniper and as a member of the Island’s Emergency Response Team (essentially a SWAT team), among other credentials.

In the case of the shotgun found at the mill site, the stock was cut and modified to give it a pistol-type grip. This also makes the firearm lighter and shorter, said Gelderblom.

A shotgun such as this one, with a modified stock, would typically be shot from the hip, said Gelderblom. To fire it as a pistol would be difficult, but not impossible.

“The shotgun is not designed to be a weapon of accuracy, it’s designed to be powerful or to have a larger area of impact at closer range,” said Gelderblom.

The sawed off end of a gun barrel and cut wooden pieces of a stock from a Winchester firearm were among evidence found at Kevin Addison’s residence when it was searched by RCMP the day after the mill shooting, Cpl. Michael Eggen testified in court yesterday.