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In September, 1980, angry at being thrown out of Downtown Vancouver’s Palace Hotel tavern, 34-year-old Steven LeClair got his handgun, returned to the establishment and began firing indiscriminately.

Within seconds, pub manager Anthony Dutkiewicz, 50, waiter James McDonald, 35, and patron Frieda Kradepohl, 72, lay dying and two more lay wounded. LeClair then walked into the street, hijacked a car, and ordered the driver to Richmond RCMP headquarters, where he shot and killed the front desk officer, Const. Tom Agar, 26, and wounded another officer before he was taken into custody.

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At trial, LeClair threatened surviving bar staff from the stand, saying they were lucky to be walking. He applied for early parole in 1998, but was rejected in part because — just as was the case the night he killed them — LeClair did not know his victim’s names.

But this week, 34 years after his rampage, LeClair is finally getting his first taste of freedom. The Parole Board of Canada acknowledged it cannot be sure the 68-year-old will not reoffend, but deemed it safe enough to grant him 72 hours of freedom per month to shop, go to the movies and be with his wife, whom he appears to have met from prison via a personal ad.