Bryer Schmegelsky, left, and Kam McLeod. Photo via RCMP
Mounties have yet to determine the motive of Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, two Port Alberni teens who police say confessed in videos to killing three people in Northern B.C. in July.
RCMP held a media conference in Surrey on Friday to convey some of the information from the triple-homicide investigation. The two teens were found dead on August 7, having succumbed to self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a remote part of Manitoba following a nation-wide manhunt.
Police revealed that one witness at the time, and in the area of the murders, could have escaped being shot prior to the killing spree. Pre-suicide videos indicate the teens, at one point, planned to kill more people.
McLeod and Schmegelsky are believed to have shot and killed tourists Chynna Deese and Lucas Fowler, as well as Vancouver resident Leonard Dyck.
Assistant Commissioner Kevin Hackett said the investigation was “complex and fast-moving,” involving 162 officers and several agencies across numerous provinces and territories.
“The murders appear to be random and crimes of opportunity with no known motive” and for “unknown reasons,” Hackett told media.
Murder charges against McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18, for Dyck’s death have been abated by Crown counsel.
Police stated on July 17, just before midnight, a male witness had pulled over to the side of the highway, two hours west of Whitehorse, Yukon, to take a nap. After five minutes, a truck being driven by two men fitting the description of McLeod and Schmegelsky pulled off, in front of the man’s vehicle. One of the men got out holding a long gun, entered the bushes and proceeded to walk toward the witness vehicle. The armed man then walked out of the bush and toward the witness in a “tactical or hunting stance.” The witness then drove off and as he passed the truck the other man covered his face, making it difficult to determine an exact description.
Police outlined the teens’ steps before and after the murders.
More to come.
