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A man charged with killing eight people in Edmonton, Canada this week had piled up huge gambling debts and was forced to file bankruptcy last February after running up a debt of nearly C$500,000 (NZ$551,124).
Phu Lam, 53, fatally shot five adults and two children, ages 8 and 3, in an Edmonton house that he co-owned with his estranged wife.
He then killed another woman in a different house in Edmonton before driving to a town 30 kilometres northeast of the city, where he shot himself in a Vietnamese restaurant.
Police said Lam dropped an 8-month-old girl, a niece of his wife, Thuy Tien Truong, whom he had already killed, and their 1-year-old son with a relative in Edmonton before shooting the eighth victim, Cyndi Duong, later that day.
"There's a very good possibility that those children were in the house... when the homicides took place," Edmonton Police Superintendent Mark Neufeld said at a press conference.
"And, yes, for whatever reason, the children were spared."
Court documents show Lam threatened to kill his entire family back in 2012.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
