Music Manager Shot In Spree

A killing spree by a 38-year-old man that began in Thousand Oaks, Calif., started with an attack that injured artist manager Tim Heyne and killed his wife and friend.

Between May 30th and 31st, Toby Whelchel shot five people, killing two, beat another fatally and injured four others, including two children. He apparently took his own life inside of a Wal-Mart in nearby Simi Valley, a Los Angeles suburb.

The attacks began at the house of attorney Steve Mazin. His friends Tim and Jan Heyne were returning a boat they had borrowed from Mazin, according to the Ventura County Star, when Whelchel approached them in the driveway.

There was a history between Mazin and Whelchel; court documents show the attorney had represented the attacker in several legal matters and filed a restraining order against him. Whelchel was a business partner of Mazin’s wife and possibly her lover, according to court documents. The attorney and his wife were going through a divorce at the time.

Relatives told the media that Tim Heyne casually knew Whelchel as an acquaintance of his friend and thought nothing of it when the perpetrator started running toward Mazin, believing he was possibly going to give the attorney a hug.

Whelchel then opened fire, hitting all three. Jan was pronounced dead at the scene, Mazin died at a nearby hospital and Tim – shot in the chest – was in serious but stable condition at press time.

Tim Heyne is a partner at Union Entertainment Group, home to Nickelback, Cinderella, Default, and Pillar, among others.

“They were just lucky they had the time that they had together,” the couple’s son, Jeff Heyne, told the Star. “It’s enough for my dad just to know that the time they had was just so good.”

The motive for the attack is not clear. After the shootings, Whelchel immediately carjacked a Ford F-150 and disappeared until the next morning, when he broke into a home in the Camelot Estates gated community, according to the Los Angeles Times.

There, he attacked a woman, who later died from her injuries, and beat her two children into unconsciousness. He then shot a cop who arrived at the scene. A pool maintenance man tried to intervene but was injured as well. Whelchel took the maintenance man’s automobile, and police gave chase.

He drove to a Wal-Mart store in Simi Valley, went in and apparently shot at the ammunition case in the sporting goods department before turning the gun on himself.