Several victims’ names confirmed
Email | Print | 7085 views Elliott Wilson | Skagit Valley Herald
September 04, 2008 - 12:16 AM
Last Updated: September 11, 2008 - 09:20 AM

Frank Varga

A bouquet of flowers is set at the intersection of Alger CCC Road and Cain Lake Road expressing sympathy for the victims of a shooting and stabbing rampage Tuesday afternoon.

Mount Vernon resident Greg Gillum, 38, was one of two construction workers killed Tuesday in a shooting rampage that left five others dead and four more wounded, his family confirmed Wednesday.

“I know that I am not the only one that has a loss,” Debra Winblad, Gillum’s mother, said by phone Wednesday. “I knew there were going to be a lot of people devastated by this, but I did not know that I was going to be one of them.”

The other construction worker killed at the Alger job site was David Radcliffe, 58, of Clear Lake, according to Gillum’s family and a friend of the Radcliffe family.

It was Radcliffe’s truck that suspect Isaac Zamora was driving when he fled pursuing officers south on Interstate 5 before being taken into custody in the parking lot of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Mount Vernon, officials said.

During that chase, Leroy Lange, a 64-year-old man from Methow in North Central Washington, was shot to death as he drove in a southbound lane on the interstate. Officials confirmed his identity Wednesday afternoon.

He was shot while driving his 2008 Honda CRV south on the interstate near the Bow Hill rest stop, officials said.

Lange and slain Skagit County Sheriff’s Deputy Anne Jackson are the only two officially confirmed victims. The deaths of Gillum and Radcliffe were confirmed by family members and friends. Mike Adkinson of Bellingham, a close friend of Radcliffe’s, said Wednesday that the victim’s family had been informed of his death.

Two others killed in the same Alger neighborhood on Silver Creek and Bridle drives have yet to be publicly identified.

Winblad said she only received official confirmation Wednesday afternoon that both men were killed in the shooting spree that began on Silver Creek Drive in Alger and spanned seven crime scenes and several hours.

“All I know was he was at his construction site, and he got shot and killed,” Winblad said of her son. “… We have not seen him. We do not know where he is.”

Gillum, who worked for Radcliffe’s construction business, was working with him at a residence in Alger Tuesday, Winblad said.

Greg Gillum had two children, Ryan and Megan Gillum, who live with their mother and Greg Gillum’s ex-wife, Joanne Gillum, in California, Winblad said. He had a twin brother and five other siblings, said Winblad.

“They are fraternal, but they look identical,” she said. “In fact we called Jeff, Greg twice today.”

“He is my twin and every time I look in the mirror I see him,” said Jeff Gillum, his fraternal twin brother who lived with him in a Mount Vernon trailer park.

“We had fun switching classes,” Jeff Gillum said of their childhood. “It was fun being a twin.”

Brian Gillum, 40, the older brother of the fraternal twins, lives nearby.

Winblad first learned that her son may have been a victim Tuesday evening when she received an anxious call from Brian’s wife, who had heard on the news that two construction workers had been killed.

Through the evening and into the early morning hours, Winblad and her family feared that Greg Gillum was one of the two workers reported dead.

“I figured it was no big thing, he will be home,” Jeff Gillum said. “It is not like him to not come home or to call.”

But on Wednesday afternoon, the family’s fear was confirmed.

“We called the police and the coroner,” Winblad said by phone Wednesday. “… Nobody could give us any information until 2 o’clock today.”

“I am in denial that I lost my first child,” she said. “I am numb.”

Greg Gillum was born in Upland, Calif. He moved to the area two years ago and began working with Radcliffe, she said

“He did not particularly want to work construction,” his mother said. “He had ideas of going into something more technical.”

He was likable, loving, funny and kept his house clean, said his mother, who saw him for the last time when he stopped by her office.

Jeff Gillum, who also does construction work, said the brothers’ passion was golf. The twins and Brian Gillum often golfed in Sedro-Woolley and plan to spread some of Greg Gillum’s ashes there.

• Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .

Law enforcement asks anyone who may have may have information about the slayings to call the investigations tip line at 360-419-3257.

Victims of Tuesday’s rampage:
Six killed:
• Sheriff’s Deputy Anne Jackson, 40, responding to a trespasser complaint
• Leroy Lange, a 64-year-old motorist from Methow, shot and killed on Interstate 5.
• Two construction workers: Greg Gillum, 38, of Mount Vernon and David Radcliffe, 58, of Clear Lake, confirmed by friends and family
• A 48-year-old woman, whose identity has not yet been confirmed
• A male whose identity hasn’t been confirmed

Four injured:
• Trooper Troy Giddings, shot in the arm
• A 56-year-old man, who is married to the 48-year-old woman who died.
• A 61-year-old man, who had at least two stab wounds to the chest
• A 37-year-old Bow man riding a motorcycle, shot in the arm






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