Alberta man comes face-to-face with gunman during Kingsway Mall crime spree
Christopher Beausoleil just went to out to do some Christmas shopping at a central Edmonton mall when he found himself looking down the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun.
“In hindsight, you think… how quickly life can change for you — or even end,” he said Wednesday.
The Fort McMurray man came face-to-face with a gunman in the parking lot of Kingsway Mall Tuesday night, just moments before another man was shot and a truck was carjacked and crashed a few blocks away.
Beausoleil had left the west side of the mall through the Shoppers Drug Mart and was getting into his truck just after 7 p.m. when he noticed a woman who appeared to be trying to get away from a man.
“Something just stood out — something was off about it,” he said.
The frantic woman was trying to flee a masked man with a gun who allegedly trying to rob her, police later revealed. In that moment, Beausoleil didn’t know that, but sensed she needed help.
He made eye contact and gestured for her to get in his truck. As the woman went to do that, the suspect turned his attention to Beausoleil in the driver’s seat.
“He ended producing what, to me, looked to be a sawed-off shotgun, pointed it up towards my face through the window.”
The man then began banging the butt of the gun against his window, so Beausoleil and the upset woman sped away and called 911. He looped back while on the phone with emergency officials, trying to keep an eye on the gunman, when he saw a commotion in front of the Walmart at the mall.
“I just heard a pop,” he said, adding one man took off running while another fell to the ground. He then saw a damaged white truck speeding off and knew it was somehow involved.
Edmonton police said after Beausoleil drove away, the suspect approached another man
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