We’re learning more about the victims of a tragic shooting spree that left four people dead in Penticton on Monday.

John Brittain, 68, has been charged with four counts of murder in the attack, which spanned about an hour and took place at three locations.

Rudi Winter, the first victim, was allegedly shot in the back while pruning a friend’s tree in downtown Penticton, according to his nephew Jeff Schwarz.

“He was a hell of a guy. He had a heart of gold, he couldn’t hurt a fly,” said Schwarz of the 71-year-old grandfather and father of two, who he said had “raised him like a father.”

“There couldn’t have been a kinder soul out there, it’s tragic… He had just a heart like you wouldn’t believe.”

Family members have identified Rudi Winter as one of four people killed in a shooting spree in Penticton on Monday.

Schwarz said Rudi had emigrated to Canada from Germany in his youth and that he and his wife Renate sold their business in Vancouver and moved to Penticton in the 1980s to operate a motel.

Rudi had since retired and focused his time on helping people out as a handyman, being active in his Jehovah’s Witness congregation and maintaining his garden and grape vines.

“He had a fish pond in the back and that was his passion, feeding them, covering them up, protecting them from raccoons,” he said.

“He had the back yard looking like a European village.”

Neighbours have identified Susan and Barry Wonch, who lived across the street from the Winters, as the victims of the shooter’s second stop. The couple had recently moved to Penticton.

Neighbour Pete Shaw said he didn’t know the Wonches well, but that Barry had a hobby of restoring antiques.

“He moved here from Alberta two years ago — retired, worked on used furniture, old furniture,” he said.

“He was kind of quiet, stayed to himself and worked on his furniture.”

Darlene Knippelberg, the Wonches’ next door neighbour, was the next target.

She was recently widowed, and according to Schwarz lived with her 46-year-old daughter with down syndrome.

“The mom was looking after her, and I think she’d just dropped her daughter off to do volunteer work [when it happened],” he said.

Sources tell Global News that Brittain had once lived in the same neighbourhood, where his ex-wife still has a home — and that he allegedly had a string of disputes and grievances with his neighbours.

“When you read about this stuff all over the United States where people are shooting each other for no reason, and when it hits you in your own family, the last thing in the world you’d expect,” said Schwarz.

“The day before, my mom was there, my step dad was there, his granddaughter was there, they were all having a barbecue — if it had happened a day earlier they would have taken out my whole family, perhaps.”

The Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce and Ook-nakane Friendship Centre have scheduled a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Gyro Park.

Residents are encouraged to attend to show support for the families and friends of the victims.

— With files from Robin Gill

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