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Nicola Valley’s News Voice Since 1905
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Attack on Parliament Hill; one suspect dead
Parliament Hill was attacked by at least one gunman on Wednesday morning. One soldier and one gunman were killed. Herald file photo
A gunman shot and killed a soldier who was standing guard at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 22. The gunman then went to Parliament Hill, where he was reportedly killed after trading shots with Parliament’s sergeantat-arms. Multiple shots were fired within the halls of the Parliament building. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was safely removed from Parliament Hill, and his events for the day cancelled. Liberal
leader Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair were also reported safe. MPs were locked down inside the buildings as police searched for any other gunmen involved in the attack. The attack on Parliament Hill took place two days after two soldiers in Quebec were intentionally run down in a car driven by 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau, who was one of 90 suspected extremists being watched by the RCMP. Couture-Rouleau led police on a
chase and was shot and killed when he emerged from his crashed vehicle with a knife in his hand. The attack on Parliament Hill occurred just before 7 a.m. local time. At the B.C. legislature on Wednesday, extra guards were stationed at each entrance. Tourists and members of the public were prohibited from entering, but pre-booked school tours were allowed to enter the building. The situation in Ottawa was ongoing as of the Herald’s press deadline.
Case of missing Merritt man still a mystery Family searching for answers a year after disappearance By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
It has been a harrowing year for the family of a local man who went missing one year ago. Dean Morrison, then a 44-year-old father of three, disappeared after leaving his workplace at Stump Lake Ranch on Oct. 22, 2013. Morrison sometimes stayed with his sister on his days off, but by Oct. 28, she had still not heard from him and reported him missing to the RCMP. RCMP conducted an air and ground search on Oct. 31, 2013, but came up empty.
A community-organized ground search on Nov. 13, 2013 also turned up nothing. “There have been several searches and we haven’t come up with anything,” Morrison’s mother, Elizabeth Faber, said. “Everybody misses him and we just would like to know... It would be nice to hear or know something.” Morrison’s missing person file has since been transferred to the Kamloops RCMP. He is described as Caucasian, five-foot-six, 140 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a quilted black jacket and work pants. Anyone with information on Morrison’s disappearance is
asked to contact the Kamloops RCMP at 250-314-1800. In the year since Morrison’s disappearance, the family has experienced more hardship. His sister, Michelle, passed away in late August. “My daughter and my son — I lost both of them within one year,” Faber said. The day before her service, Michelle’s 23-year-old son Jordan fell ill and was taken to hospital. He spent two weeks in the hospital with meningitis and left the hospital with only partial vision. Faber said doctors told her the meningitis may have provoked a dormant degenerative disease.
Jordan is now staying with his grandmother in Vancouver and is still trying to recover his eyesight. “Almost every day, we’ve e been to doctor’s offices in Vancouver,” she said. Faber said recovering Jordan’s eyesight is a priority for the family right now. “Sometimes it just helps to take the focus off something else,” she said. Faber said her family is thankful for all of the support they’ve received over the last year. Still, she said staying strong is tough. “There’s just so much trauma in the family. It’s hard to deal with it all.”
Dean Morrison has been missing since Oct. 22, 2013. Herald file photo
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