The B.C. Prosecution Service has approved charges against a man suspected of shooting two people at the Williams Lake Stampede over the weekend.
Jordell Anthony Sellars, 33, faces one count each of attempted murder and discharging a firearm with intent to wound and remains in custody pending a bail hearing next week, according to court records.
Police in the community of 11,500 people 236 kilometres south of Prince George were called to a report of a "public shooting" on Sunday afternoon at the stampede grounds.
Two people were taken to hospital and the grounds were evacuated.
In a video posted to the stampede’s Facebook page, Williams Lake Stampede president Court Smith commended the announcer for doing a "fantastic job of having people exit the facility. Things are returning a bit to normal.”
Police said the shooting appeared to be targeted although adding a bystander was also wounded. Both are expected to recover.
Sellars has a criminal record and, in 2017, was sentenced to three years probation after police found a loaded handgun next to where Sellars was sitting in a pickup truck. The sentence was later upgraded to a conditional sentence order - effectively house arrest - of two years less a day on appeal by the Crown.
According to a judge's decision on the original sentencing, Sellars was involved in a gang operating in and around the Williams Lake during his teen years and conflict with a rival gang escalated to the use of knives then guns that resulted in the deaths of a number of members of both gangs, Sellar's brother being one of the victims.
Sellars was also a suspect in a pair of murders in 2019 and subsequent charged with on count each of murder, one count of attempt murder and one count of kidnapping but the charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence, according to the Williams Lake Tribune.
- with files from Castanet
