After running errands, Ian McKay stopped at the Centex gas station on the Malahat to pick up parcels on his way back home.
Accompanied by his daughter and young granddaughter, the man left his car and walked into the building that doubles as a post office for nearby residents, at 5 p.m., Aug. 29.
After several minutes of looking, the clerk couldn’t find the parcel; McKay insisted it was “really valuable”.
Seconds later, McKay was held at knifepoint by the gas station clerk, who threatened to “cut him into pieces.”
“Right away, he just flipped out and started swearing at me and telling me ‘Get the f*ck out of my store,’” said McKay. “I was befuddled and I sort of stood back.
“All of a sudden he comes out out from behind the counter and he pulls a big knife on us and starts threatening us. He starts saying, ‘I'm gonna give you a necklace and I'm gonna cut you into pieces.’”
McKay expressed feeling powerless and was especially concerned for his daughter, who had joined him minutes earlier, wondering what was taking so long.
“I'm 63 years old, I have a broken leg, and I was standing there hobbling thinking ‘I can't fight this guy,’” he said.
Uttering violent threats at the father and his daughter, the worker pushed the two out of the store and into the parking lot while his granddaughter witnessed the incident from the car.
It's in the safety of their vehicle that McKay’s daughter called the police. As they waited for law enforcement, the clerk came out a few more times, circling the car, flailing his weapon, while shouting threats, according to McKay.
RCMP Cpl. Alex Bérubé confirmed police forces apprehended a man at around 5:45 p.m.
“He was arrested for assault with a weapon and released with a court date of Nov. 19, 2024,” said Bérubé in an email.
Black Press Media reached out to Centex Petroleum’s head office for some comments on the incident.
“As soon as we found out that this incident happened, we terminated the employment of that employee right away,” said Apurav Bhalla, operations manager. “What he did was totally unacceptable behaviour.”
Despite the police intervention, the man showed up at the gas station the following day.
“When the employee was informed that he was terminated, he came the next morning and started threatening our employees,” Bhalla said. “[The RCMP] gave him a notice that he's not allowed in our business.”
Bhalla noted the long-time worker never had any record of violent behaviour.
Black Press Media requested the former employee’s contact information from Centex and the gas station supervisor but was denied.
“He came up from behind me and he sliced my throat”
Following the Aug. 29 incident, McKay experienced a traumatic response, recalling a life-changing event from four years earlier.
While helping a friend undergoing spinal surgery in Kamloops, McKay, his son, his brother, and his friend were attacked by a resident of the building where they were staying on March 28, 2020.
“[The] guy stabbed my son in the neck that was behind me,” McKay said. “Then he came up behind me and he sliced my throat.
“I didn't even know the guy. I fell down in the hallway and my neck was completely cut from side to side.”
Three days later, McKay woke up in the hospital with a wound requiring 58 staples to close. As he regained his senses, he learned that his assailant had killed his friend and stabbed his brother in the lungs, according to McKay.
Although McKay survived the stabbing spree, the attacker severed a nerve in his arm, which left him unable to work as a carpenter ever since.
Upon learning the Malahat gas station clerk had been released pending his first court appearance, he said he couldn’t shake an omnipresent sense of unease.
"Since I live close by and know that the employee has my address, I’m hesitant to go pick up my mail," McKay said. “I’m worried about my safety and my family’s safety.”
As the 63-year-old man continues to grapple with the aftermath of the incident, he hopes for a prompt response from the justice system.
“I’m choked about this. Something should be done,” he said. “People like that should not be on the street. It’s not safe.”
