By Julie Chadwick

Nanaimo mill shooter Kevin Addison guilty on all counts

Sep 28, 2016 | 2:13 PM

NANAIMO — A jury has found former mill worker Kevin Addison guilty on all charges in the Western Forest Products mill shooting.

The unanimous verdict on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder came Wednesday afternoon after less than two days of deliberation by a jury of six men and six women.

During a tragic shooting rampage in April of 2014, Addison used a sawed off shotgun to kill mill employees Michael Lunn and Fred McEachern and in an attempt to kill Tony Sudar and Earl Kelly.

A date to set sentencing and hear victim impact statements is set for Oct. 17.

“I’m so proud of the jury for listening and coming to the conclusion we all came to two-and-a-half years ago. But we have to move on and it’s going to be a very difficult challenge. We’ve lost someone who was a key member of our family,” said Andy Hagen, Fred McEachern’s brother in law outside the courtroom after the verdict. “My wife had only the one brother so it’s a huge loss to our family, and we’ll never forget him.”

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The families expressed their gratitude towards the jury for their verdict.

“Thank you for doing the right thing and thank you for being there,” said Marlene Lunn, Michael Lunn’s wife, in a statement aimed at the jury. “They did a great job.”

The end of the three-week trial comes as a relief to tearful friends and family, who said it was a gruelling process to endure.

“You’re shaking constantly, you don’t know what you’re going to hear, when you do hear it it’s heartbreaking because your father is dying over and over and over again,” said Marcy Lunn, Michael Lunn’s daughter. “You’re listening to the victims and their testimony and you imagine yourself being there, what a nightmare it was for them, going through it all. It was horrific. You go to bed at night and you can’t even sleep, because all you’re doing is thinking about what happened, thinking about it through somebody else’s eyes. I hope nobody I ever know goes through a murder because you don’t get it unless you’ve gone through it.”

During the trial, it emerged that despite being shot in the back, Fred McEachern managed to stand up and hoist a chair to hit Addison over the head, which ultimately subdued him until police arrived. According to his autopsy report, Fred then quickly bled to death from his injuries,.

“We knew that it happened, but it was really just nice that it was able to come out to the public, what really happened,” said Lorraine McEachern, Fred McEachern’s wife.

“He’s a hero. He stopped what could have been a lot worse. A lot worse,” Marcy Lunn added, and said that despite the pain of their loss, the families will always be bonded through what they experienced.

“We’ll always be family with these people because we lost our dads at the same time. They lost their husbands at the same time,” she said.

Marlene Lunn said she felt it was serendipitous that the verdict came in on a Wednesday, as the shooting also happened on a Wednesday.

“Kevin didn’t seem to remember the day of the week, but we never forgot it. So it’s kind of justice that it happened on a Wednesday,” she said.