Mitchell Lapa murder suicide: Brother in law shoots Chris Traynor Oshawa, Canada man & three children dead then self. Sister, Loretta Traynor survives shooting.
A Canadian father and three of his children have shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide carried out by his brother-in-law over the weekend. Surviving the gun violence was the alleged gunman’s sister, the father’s wife.
Mitchell Lapa, 48, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, is alleged to have entered the family home ‘uninvited’ in Oshawa, Friday morning and launched the shooting, killing four members of the same family, Durham Regional Police Police said.
Chris Traynor, 50, his children Bradley, 20; Adelaide, 15; and Joseph, 11 were shot and killed, according to CBC.
Chris’ wife Loretta Traynor, 50, was injured in the shooting and is expected to make a full recovery. The woman was reported to be the brother of Loretta.
Lapa died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene. The homicide unit is still investigating the motive behind the shooting.
Brother in law spares sister so she can suffer
The Toronto Sun reports that a vehicle at the scene was registered to Lapa. The car was parked in the driveway facing the wrong way police said.
A friend of the family said that Loretta’s father passed away last year, and the loss heavily impacted her family. She has two older siblings, Christopher Lapa and Mitchell.
‘Their father, Matthew, died last year and his wife, Marilyn, had passed away years before. Even as a kid growing up, Mitchell was a couple of years younger than me — always in and out of trouble,’ a friend who remained anonymous said.
‘And that was from a point of view of a teenager who was able to see that all that time ago. I am not surprised of what I’m hearing … He was mentally unstable,’ the friend added.
‘Lapa was the sole shooter in this incident and he died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,‘ police said in a statement Friday.
The friend alleged that Mitchell killed the family and only injured his sister to make her suffer.
‘In that grapevine community, they’re saying Mitchell killed all Loretta’s family and only injured her enough, so she would have to live without the rest of her family,’ she said.
Mystery motive
‘I had heard that when the father died, something deteriorated then,’ the friend added.
The friend says that Loretta and Chris had four children and the eldest was in college at the time of the shooting. The parents had met during college.
Police announced Sunday investigators wanting to speak to anyone who knew Lapa in a bid to understand the motive.
Following the Oshawa shooting, locals left messages of condolences in chalk on the grounds of two local schools in honor of the family.
Chris Traynor was a well-respected teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School in Oshawa.
‘He was a very impactful teacher to many students and inspired a lot of kids to keep attending class despite the desire to drop out. He was the type of teacher to make you want to succeed. He always shared the opportunity to teach us perseverance,’ former student Noella Gilkes, 20, who was a student of Traynor’s in 2016 and 2017 said.
A community struggles to comprehend
‘A tragedy like this is always bad, especially in your hometown,’ Jake Walker, another former student of Traynor’s said.
‘But when the victims was one of few teachers to impact yourself, along with three of his children it is a harder pill to swallow. I am at a loss of words right now. RIP Mr. Traynor and all who lost their lives far too early,’ Walker added via Twitter.
Loretta was also a teacher at St. Theresa Catholic School.
Locals have also left messages of condolences at Sir Albert Love Catholic School, which Joseph Traynor attended.
Bradley was a university student and Adelaide was just starting high school.
A GoFundMe page to assist the Traynor family had raised over $125,519 surpassing the goal of $5,000 come Monday night.
