City woman awarded bravery award for disarming gunman

PUBLICATION: The Edmonton Sun
DATE: 2004.11.16
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: 3
ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos by Tim Smith, Special to the Edmonton Sun 1.
Christine Sieben of Gleniffer Lake, shown here with boyfriend Aaron
Roberge, was six months pregnant with their son Griffen Roberge when she
saved a five-year-old girl from drowning. 2. Erika Shuman and Laury
Yakimchuk show their bronze medals.
BYLINE: PAUL COWAN, EDMONTON SUN

————————————————————————
——–

RELUCTANT HEROES
CITY WOMAN SAYS SLAIN VICTIM DESERVED BRAVERY AWARD

————————————————————————
——–

A city woman awarded a bravery award for disarming a gunman who had just
shot her best friend says it’s her dead buddy who really deserves the
medal.

Erika Shuman, 33, and Laury Yakimchuk, 38, went to the Edmonton home of
Julia Moen, 33, when she failed to turn up for work in Sherwood Park on
May 9, 2003.

They were met at the door of the house by Moen and her ex-boyfriend
Jason Lundgren. Moen persuaded them to wait outside for her but seconds
later Lundgren shot her in the head with a sawed-off .22 rifle and then
pulled the trigger on himself.

“She thought our lives were in danger,” said Shuman.

“She could have made a run for it or screamed that he had a gun but she
didn’t. It’s her (who) deserves the medal.”

Shuman said she felt awkward about the bronze medal from the Royal
Canadian Humane Association because Moen died from her head wound.

“We both felt awkward about the medal because of the outcome,” she
added. “I miss Julia so much, and today reminds me of seeing my friend
lying there with blood pouring out of her head.”

Shuman and Yakimchuk forced their way into Moen’s home after hearing a
loud bang.

“I thought maybe he’d beaten her up when I first got in there and she’d
banged her head,” said Yakimchuk.

But in fact Lundgren had shot Moen in the left temple at close range and
then placed the gun under his chin and shot himself. As Lundgren started
to come around, he reached for the gun again but Shuman snatched it
away. “Instinct just took over,” she explained.

Lundgren later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced
to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 15 years.

He had a history of violence against women who rejected him and served
jail time for kidnapping a former girlfriend at knife-point and beating
another while armed with a knife.

Shuman and Yakimchuk were among 17 people who received awards from the
association in a ceremony at Edmonton police headquarters yesterday.

The awards are for acts of personal sacrifice in the aid of others.

A southern Alberta trucker who pulled a fellow driver out of a burning
fuel tanker received the rare silver medal from the humane association.

Tom Bangert, 39, from Nanton, hugged the man he pulled from the burning
tanker to put out the flames following the July 7 collision on Highway
547. “I didn’t think about the danger,” he said after the award
ceremony. “Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t have gone near the tanker.”

Eight people received the association’s bronze medal and a further eight
were given honorary testimonials, including Christine Sieben of
Gleniffer Lake near Red Deer. On July 17, she saved a five-year-old girl
from drowning in the lake.

Sieben was six months pregnant at the time.