Border guard used service weapon to gun down ex-fiancée in Prince Rupert, B.C., CBC learns

The murder-suicide rocked the community of interests of Prince prince rupert, B.C., tierce years agone this hebdomad.

Siu Shen (Shawn) Yeung, 44, a veteran border services officer, was off duty when he gunned down his ex-fiancée, Patricia (Patty) Foreman, 52, on Nov. 21, 2022.

Yeung shot Forman as she was walking through a busy mall to her job at B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development. He then turned the gun on himself. 

That investigation determined that Yeung was able to take the handgun from a restricted CBSA firearms lockup, in the middle of the night, even though he’d been off duty for more than a week. 

Yeung had the gun for six hours before he used it to kill Forman.

CBSA officials only learned the service weapon was missing after the murder-suicide, according to their review.

One of the recommendations from the CBSA’s investigation is better training for CBSA supervisors to recognize mental health warning signs. The report also makes general reference to mental health counselling for border services officers. 

Parts of the CBSA report are redacted, and there are no specific details about Yeung’s mental health.

Forman’s best friend, Jewel Jerstad, said she had long been concerned about Yeung’s behaviour, especially after Forman broke up with him about three months before the shooting.

Forman’s death was deeply troubling to a community where she was well known and much loved. 

She was a mother, a popular musician and performer, and an integral part of Prince Rupert’s arts scene. 

She worked for the provincial government and, following her death, B.C. Premier David Eby issued a statement saying he was “incredibly troubled” by the “violent act committed against someone who worked to serve local children and families.”

Forman was shot in the Ocean Centre Mall, which houses a day care, school, and government offices. People inside hid from the gunfire. A witness on the scene called 911 to report an active shooter. City hall was locked down.

Hours before he went into the mall with his gun, Yeung had entered a restricted firearm storage lockup in the CBSA office at 2:30 a.m., according to the agency’s investigation. 

Their review determined that CCTV cameras in the secure site that Yeung accessed had not been working for nine months. No alerts were issued or alarms sounded, even though Yeung was not authorized to take his weapon off site. 

The CBSA review determined that no threat risk assessment had previously been conducted on the secure areas that Yeung accessed. The review recommended that passwords for secure areas be changed regularly, and that off-duty officers be restricted from accessing buildings “during periods of absences both medical and non–medical.” 

The report also recommends better training for CBSA supervisors in “defensive equipment removal” — taking service weapons from officers — when it’s suspected that a condition exists that may affect an officer's capacity to carry a firearm.

But according to the conclusions of the CBSA review, Yeung was certified to carry and use his service weapon. The review determined that there were “no conditions present that identified the need for removal” of his firearm. The report provides no information about how that determination was made.

Jerstad, Forman’s best friend, says she is upset that there’s no official acknowledgment that Yeung was troubled. 

“He kept saying, ‘I’m not well, I’m not well.’”

Jerstad said she and her husband sat down with Yeung and told him he needed to get help.

"And he said, ‘If I do that, with my job, they will take away my gun.’ And that was his biggest concern.”

Jersted said Forman was worried for her safety after she broke up with Yeung. 

“He was basically stalking her. She told me she’d made a call to the police, telling them he had access to weapons,” Jerstad said.

“There's no way he should have had access to his weapon.

 “The murder was absolutely calculated. Shawn knew what time she would be going to work. He dressed all in black, he hid in the corner and unloaded his weapon on her.” 

“Information about a person who has been deceased for 20 years or less is still considered personal information … and therefore cannot be disclosed,” the agency said in an email.

That’s disputed by the retired head of the province’s police watchdog, Ron MacDonald, who led the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. For more than six years.

MacDonald wasn’t involved in the case, but read the CBSA report about the incident.

Contrary to what the border agency says, MacDonald said the Privacy Act would permit the release of information in circumstances like this.

“You have an individual who is an employee of the state, who committed a murder-suicide using a publicly owned firearm, and did it in a public place," he said.

"That greatly minimizes [Yeung’s] privacy rights and increases the public interest … and particularly who may or may not have criminal culpability for what happened. The public deserves to have transparency.” 

In an emailed statement, RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson said the police investigation was concluded and no further information would be provided.

Yeung died in hospital the day of the shooting, before he could be charged.

Mark Weber, the head of the Customs and Immigration Union, which represents CBSA officers, said he can’t comment on a specific case, but said the agency needs to overhaul its mental health support system for employees. 

He said the CBSA needs to “properly support people facing risks of psychological distress."

Meanwhile, at the government office where Forman worked — and close to where she was killed — her former boss says the murder-suicide is “still raw."

“Some people still have a hard time entering the building. Our sense of safety has been shaken,” said Julie Ferlaino.

She said the CBSA has expressed its remorse to ministry staff, and that she knows people who work for the agency “have gone through their own trauma with this.”

A photo of Forman is displayed in the ministry office in Prince Rupert, said Ferlaino, and her co-workers think about her every day. 

“Our memories of Patty are still alive.”

Betsy Trumpener has won numerous journalism awards, including a national network award for radio documentary and the Adrienne Clarkson Diversity Award. Based in Prince George, B.C., Betsy has reported on everything from hip hop in Tanzania to B.C.'s energy industry and the Paralympics.

Files from Carolina de Ryk

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