Man suspected of double murder had gun seized in February
Posted June 1, 2012 7:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – More information is coming to light about Angus Mitchell, the man suspected to be behind the double murder at a Burnaby sushi restaurant on Sunday, who himself was shot to death by police on Wednesday.
Victoria Police had concerns about him back in February. Those concerns led them to seize his gun, under the Mental Health Act, but then the gun was returned to him weeks later.
That decision is now the subject of an investigation.
In the meantime, the second victim of the Royal Oak Sushi House restaurant shooting has been identified as 34-year-old Chinh (Vivian) Diem Huynh, an employee of the restaurant and the single mom to a four-year-old daughter.
“We are still attempting to look into the motive. It’s extremely tragic. At the end of the day, there are two victims leaving behind families,” says Sgt. Jennifer Pound with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
The other victim was restaurant owner Huong (Andy) Tran.
The team has also officially linked the gun found on Mitchell the day he was shot with the restaurant shooting and an attempt on the life of his former landlord in Burnaby days later.
Mitchell became the subject of a warning issued by police, but on the same day he was discovered in Maple Ridge, but was killed during a shootout with police.
Decision to return weapon to Mitchell based on medical opinion
Lots of questions are being raised over how Mitchell was able to get his weapon back.
SFU criminologist Rob Gordon explains what would have been considered before Mitchell’s gun was returned to him.
“The only way he would have regained the gun is if a mental health professional, a pyschiatrist in particular, said he’s no longer a danger to himself or others,” he says.
In this case, Mitchell apparently produced a rifle case at a medical clinic and that prompted police to seize it.
But Gordon points out police in most cases will have a tough time trying to find out if a mentally unstable person has weapons now that the long-gun registry is history.
“Now of course the registry is gone, so it’s going to be doubly difficult to determine whether or not somebody who is mentally ill actually has a rifle.”
He says the registry was particularly useful for police to proactively remove weapons when someone was hospitalized for mental instability.
