It was just before 6 a.m. when Starlight Casino table dealer Peter Jones was getting ready to leave work and go home.
But as he was punching out, a supervisor told him that the casino was being locked down and nobody could leave.
A man with a gun got into a dispute with a woman in a parking lot just outside the casino. The woman got away, and then the police started negotiating with the man. The incident would end almost five hours later, with the man down and taken to hospital.
But inside the casino, it was an anxious number of hours for Jones and his co-workers.
"There were about 20 of us inside the break room," said Jones. "I phoned my wife to tell her what was happening, and we were watching it on TV until a supervisor came in to tell us to turn it off so that we wouldn't traumatize anybody."
Jones would get updates from his wife Nadine via cellphone and it became a waiting game for everybody inside the casino.
Jones said he knows the woman involved in the original incident. He said she's also a table dealer at the casino and he thinks she's Russian.
"I think she was coming to work," said Jones. "I met her and her husband about four years ago when we worked down at the boat (Royal City Star). ... They seemed like really nice people and I'm really kind of shocked at what happened."
When the incident ended just before 11 a.m., Jones said he didn't hear anything - preliminary media reports say at least one shot was fired - but co-workers out for a smoke break did.
"A couple of them told me they heard a bang and some glass breaking," said Jones.
All that was left for Jones to do was give his details to police officers and soon, he was outside in the sunshine, getting a ride from a co-worker back to his New Westminster home.
"I gave my wife a hug as soon as I got home," said Jones. "I'm glad this is over."
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