Rampage (36 page)

It is perhaps of little surprise that, with their Solar Temple crumbling around them like in an Indiana Jones movie, Di Mambro and Jouret opted to usher in the doomsday they had prophesied was coming for so long. On October 5, 1994, their world did cease to exist; everyone else carried on watching the
X-Files
and listening to grunge music. However, the bloody legacy of the Order of the Solar Temple did not end with Di Mambro and Jouret’s deaths.

Echoes of the Supernova

In December 1995, more flames licked the Alpine snows. Thirteen members of the OTS had disappeared on December 16, only to have their gas-soaked corpses found smouldering in a forest known as “The Well of Hell” near Grenoble, France. Among them were three of their children, aged nineteen months to six years. Fourteen of the sixteen dead were arranged in the signature circular pattern. All had taken or been administered the drugs Myolastan and Digoxin, some had taken their own lives, while a significant number showed signs that they went unwillingly to their deaths. A sampling of suicide notes expressed their desire to ascend to a “higher spiritual plane,” and worryingly, warned of another impending mass suicide.

After more than a year of carefully monitoring the remaining members of the OTS, police all over the French-speaking world had let down their guard when tragedy struck the village of Saint-Casimir, Quebec. On March 20, 1997 — the date of the spring equinox — five adults and three teenagers had assembled at a local home and rigged gasoline bombs to reduce themselves and the dwelling to ash. When the device failed to detonate, the three teenagers escaped to the shed, leaving the remaining five initiates to ingest tranquilizers, lie down en masse in the shape of a cross, and burn themselves alive. The contents of their suicide notes contained the same deluded ideology as the “Well of Hell” members’ notes. A final attempt at mass suicide/murder was thwarted in 1998, when it was learned that a German psychologist had convinced twenty-nine members to ride the inferno from the Canary Islands to Sirius. In the fourteen years since, no further suicide attempts have been made by members of the Order of the Solar Temple, though it isn’t like they haven’t taken us by surprise before.

Chapter 10

The Disgruntled Employee

The Disgruntled Employee is a mass murderer who targets current or former co-workers, transforming the workplace into his own personal hunting ground. Like
Valery Fabrikant
and Oklahoma postal worker Patrick Sherrill, he might turn to violence upon learning that his position is under threat. Having been warned that due to unsatisfactory work he faced possible termination, Sherrill drove into the post office the following morning dressed in uniform, and proceeded to shoot fourteen “sitting ducks” dead with a .22 -calibre pistol.

After stalking and threatening fellow ESL Incorporated employee Laura Black for two years, California computer technician Richard Farley was fired by the company in 1986. With little to lose, the obsessive Farley escalated his harassment. Black successfully filed for a temporary restraining order, with a hearing to make it “permanent” scheduled for February 17, 1988. On the day before the court date, Farley burst into the ESL building with a shotgun and several pistols, murdering seven people and wounding Laura Black along with three other employees. He eventually surrendered to police, but continued to write Black letters from prison. Farley’s primary motive was not to exact vengeance on his employer for firing him, but to exert absolute control over Black’s thoughts for the rest of her life. In fact, until his rampage, he hadn’t intended to physically harm her. In one letter preceding the massacre, Farley wrote, “If I killed you, you won’t be able to regret what you did.… In between the two extremes of doing nothing and having the police or someone kill me, there’s a whole range of options, each getting worse and worse.”

In many ways, OC Transpo shooter
Pierre Lebrun
was the opposite of
Valery Fabrikant
. Where Fabrikant used bully tactics to ensure his advancement in the workforce, Lebrun was a victim of bullying. His case demonstrates that, though on the surface two offenders may display remarkable commonalities, when placed under a microscope, our broad typologies can often appear tenuous, at best.

Other Disgruntled Employee mass murderers in this book:
Valery Fabrikant

Kay Feely      

Pierre Lebrun

The OC Transpo Shooter

“It’s judgment day!”

Victims:
4 killed/1 wounded/committed suicide

Duration of rampage:
April 6, 1999 (mass murder)

Location:
Ottawa, Ontario

Weapon:
Remington 760 .30-06 hunting rifle

Pierre Stutters

In a society that bombards us with ads designed to play on our insecurities, it’s unsurprising that many men and women go through life dissatisfied and, whether consciously or subconsciously, feeling like failures. One way of coping is to look for somebody vulnerable to humiliate publicly, giving the aggressor the false impression of strength. Unfortunately, several workers at Ottawa’s OC Transpo garage chose to cope with the mundanity of their day-to-day existence by ribbing Pierre Lebrun, a quiet forty-year-old bachelor who stuttered. To people who took the time to know him, like high school friend Michel Pelletier, Lebrun “really was an excellent guy.” Those who mocked his speech impediment had no interest in finding out.

Despite his large and powerful physique, Pierre Lebrun struggled with mental health issues. In the summer of 1997, one of the mechanics took the taunting too far, and Lebrun struck him. Lebrun was subsequently fired for the incident, but the union intervened on his behalf, claiming that 1) the dismissal was unwarranted; 2) management had neglected to thoroughly investigate the issue; and 3) they had terminated an employee with known disabilities. According to long-time bus driver Jim Smith, the climate of the workplace was already tense. Workers had been complaining about labour conditions at the garage for years to no avail. Lebrun kept his position, returning after a mandatory sick leave to assess his health. However, the other workers shunned him, and he was transferred to the main garage, where he ended up working alone, counting parts as an auditing clerk. Outwardly, things seemed to be improving, but in January 1999, under the advisement of his physician, Lebrun quit his job and went in search of work out west. A condition of his reinstatement had been that he participate in an anger management program. Upon completing the course, one of the questions on Lebrun’s self-evaluation form was, “Did you reach the goals set for yourself?” His answer was, “No.”

Pierre Speaks

At 2:30 p.m. on April 6, 1999, Lebrun returned to the OC Transpo garage. The stuttering outcast calmly parked his car and walked toward the bus garage carrying a Remington 760 .30-06. As he entered the parts area, he spotted long-time employees Joseph Casagrande and Rick Guertin, and fired at them from the hip. The bullet struck a metal drum and ricocheted, showering them with shrapnel.

“It’s judgment day!” Lebrun shouted.

In his confused state, Casagrande thought the gunman was playing a joke, and began walking toward him until somebody screamed, “Run!”

“He had blank eyes. This sunken look,” Casagrande would later relay. “I just started running through the [parts] rack area.” Fortunately, the Remington 760 .30-06 is a pump-action rifle, necessitating that Lebrun eject the spent cartridge after every shot. This allowed the panic-stricken workers time to run to safety. Casagrande and Guertin escaped with three other employees, breaking down an exit door. Startled by the ruckus, fifty-six-year-old Brian Guay arrived to investigate, and was greeted by a fatal shot through the chest. Harry Schoenmakers was next to die when a bullet pierced through three sheet metal dividers, striking him in the head. At some point, Lebrun entered the stores office, pumping a slug into fifty-two-year-old Clare Davidson’s back. Witnessing the carnage, David Lemay exclaimed, “He’s nuts!”

“What did you say?” Lebrun fired the rifle at him. Lemay never had a chance to clarify.

During the rampage, one particularly quick-thinking employee took command of the public address system and announced, “There’s a guy with a gun! Call 911!” Upon hearing the message, workers began to flee the facility. Others hid in closets as the clamour of fire alarms rang out a symphony of chaos for hours. Above the cacophony, Lebrun’s voice boomed: “OC Transpo, your warranty is up.” The man who had once been laughed at had commandeered the P.A. and was speaking clearly and confidently. Meanwhile, an employee had telephoned the police and informed them of the situation, providing details of Lebrun’s every movement. By then most of the workers had fled the building, and though Lebrun had a further thirty-six rounds, he lacked targets. Igniting a small fire, he climbed the stairs to a loft, hoping to get a better vantage point. Finding there were no more victims left to claim, Lebrun angrily shot out some computer terminals. As police tactical units began moving through the scene, the forty-year-old outcast blew off his own head, bringing a lifetime of misery and mockery to an end. The avid hunter had displayed uncanny marksmanship, killing four men in just five shots. However, his choice of firearm had hindered his ability to exact the devastation he so desired. In the end, this mistake had been a final stutter in Lebrun’s parting statement to the world.

Questions and Answers

Far from being over, the tragedy continued to rage. Workers at the transit depot were so distraught that a trauma team was brought in to counsel them. Several went on disability. Survivor guilt was endemic, especially among employees who recalled that Lebrun had pointed his gun at them, but for some reason had spared their lives. Two months later, employee Ray MacDonald became the sixth person to die. According to his suicide note, MacDonald and Lebrun had conversed about shooting their managers in the months before he quit. He had not realized how serious his colleague actually was.

I have been unable to sleep well since the shooting at OC.… The gunman, Pierre, had talked with me to great length about it and where to be for a better shot at some managers. As it turned out, he shot himself at this location in the loft. I feel guilty as hell for not telling anyone. Who was I to know if he would do it or not?
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In the days immediately following the massacre, there was an outpouring of support from the local community, as passengers offered flowers, cards, and condolences to the hardy drivers of the OC Transpo. On January 18, a service for the four murder victims was held at the Corel Centre, with five thousand in attendance. Candles were lit in honour of the fallen, and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and other officials placed memorial wreaths.

Police, survivors, and family members of the victims sought an explanation for the tragedy. It was learned that Lebrun had purchased his rifle legally seven years earlier, and that current gun legislation could not have prohibited it. He had been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, paranoia, and insomnia, but due to the confidentiality of medical records, could not have been identified as a potential threat. Until the massacre, Mr. Lebrun had no criminal history of violence.

Tracing the killer’s footsteps, authorities learned than he had driven back from Las Vegas, arriving at his parents’ house in Ottawa on April 6. Putting pen to paper, he had written a note apologizing to his mother and father for what he was about to do:

I fear for my life because of these retards from the union who are following me.… I am being followed, spied upon, humiliated from Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna and even Las Vegas. They will never leave me alone. I can’t go on living like this. They have destroyed my life, I will destroy their life.… I never wanted it to come to this but it was probably my destiny.
[59]

In the letter, Lebrun accused seven of his former co-workers of causing him pain, warning that they would pay for their ridicule. Strangely, none of the people on his list were slain during his rampage, and it is even reported that three of them had actually tried to help him through his problems.

One of the dominant themes expressed in the many statements and speeches following the massacre was the notion that the event was somehow beyond comprehension. At a memorial service for the victims, held on April 18, 1999, Lebrun’s supervisor Richard White said, “I don’t know if we will ever understand what happened. Time heals, people have always told me that. I hope to hell it does.” In 2000, David Halloran spoke similarly to his co-workers regarding the anniversary of the murders, “One year later we find it difficult to understand [why] life can make such a difficult turn.” When news of the deaths first reached him, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stated,

All Canadians were stunned to learn about this senseless and horrible act. The reason for what happened will always defy our understanding. All that we know is that lives have been taken, families have been shattered and a peaceful workplace has been deeply shaken.
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