The man arrested following the death of Vancouver C.E.O Benjamin Banky is due to appear in court Monday.
Eric Kirkpatrick faces a first degree murder charge after Friday's shooting at the staff Christmas party at the office of Banky's company TallGrass Distribution Ltd., a natural health food supplier.
Kirkpatrick, 61, had been fired from TallGrass the day before the incident.
This kind of workplace violence may be rare, but forensic psychologist Stephan Hart offered some incite into such occurrences.
"Usually there's a long history of conflicts and problems in advance. Sometimes weeks, months, even years in advance," said Hart.
"Several kinds of triggering incidents can occur. Anniversaries, holidays, in other cases, personal things like problems in one's own life."
The last case of fatal workplace violence in B.C. was in Kamloops in Oct., 2002.
Richard Anderson shot two of his co-workers and himself after being ordered to lay off several people at the Kamloops Water, Land and Air Protection Office. On the day of this shooting, Anderson had received a disciplinary letter from his boss. At the inquest into the shootings, it was revealed that he had been under a great deal of stress.
Hart says workplace violence such as verbal abuse, threats or intimidation can be common. WorkSafeBC has developed programs to help employers protect their staff, but this usually is to protect them from the public and not colleagues.
"It's more difficult to figure out when a person poses a threat. Employee to employee violence is a really difficult one for employees to deal with," said Hart.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry.
