RCMP Officers killed.

[Orin]

INDEPTH: RCMP
In the line of duty:
Deaths of RCMP officers
CBC News Online | Updated March 7, 2005


An unidentified man lowers the flag outside of the Mayerthorpe Legion to half-mast after four RCMP officers were gunned down on March 3, 2005.

Until March 3, 2005, a total of 187 officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and its forerunner force, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), had died in the line of duty since the 1880s. The shootings of four young officers in Rochfort Bridge, Alta., raise that total to 191.

In the early years, the causes of police deaths reflected the harsh reality of bringing order to Canada's sparsely populated and geographically challenging West and North. More than a dozen officers were thrown from their horses, drowned in raging spring rivers or froze to death before the dawn of the 20th century.

Many more were killed in combat with Métis who sought to establish an independent homeland in the Battle of Duck Lake, among other skirmishes of the Northwest Rebellion.

More than 100 officers died in boating accidents, car accidents or plane crashes, according to the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial database of Canadian law enforcers who died in the line of duty.

The RCMP alone has marked the deaths of 155 of its officers since its formation in 1920 – 19 in work-related plane crashes alone. Car crashes claimed another 53 lives, many of them taking place while officers were doing their jobs in the worst weather conditions or while they were pursuing suspects wanted for major crimes.

But 59 officers of the RCMP and NWMP have now been killed in the line of duty for merely being a police officer. Here are some of the most chilling cases, as detailed in the memorial database.

August 1920:
Const. Ernest Usher, 26, is shot and killed while trying to arrest train robbers at Bellewae, Alta.

January 1922:
Const. William Doak, 39, stationed at Tree River, N.W.T., is shot to death in his sleep by an escaped prisoner.


John Shaw
October 1935:
Const. John Shaw, 39, of the RCMP, and Const. William Wainwright, a municipal police officer from Benito, Man., are shot while transporting three young men suspected of armed robbery in Saskatchewan. The murderers - three farmers' sons aged 18 to 21 wearing three-piece suits - dump the officers' bodies in a muddy slough, where a farmer finds them three days later. The men later try to enter Banff National Park in Alberta, but run into an RCMP spot check. They open fire, killing two RCMP officers: Const. George Harrison, 29, and Sgt. Thomas Wallace, 39. The murderers are themselves eventually shot to death.


Elwood Keck
June 1962:
Const. Elwood Keck, 25; Const. Gordon Pedersen, 25; and Const. Donald Weisgerber, 23, are shot to death while attempting to apprehend gunman George Booth, who is firing his army surplus rifle from the Peterson Creek Bridge in Kamloops, B.C.


Roger Pierlet
March 1974:
Const. Roger Pierlet, 23, is working alone on an overnight patrol in Cloverdale, B.C., when he stops a car while looking for vandals. It turns out to contain two men, one of them a Langley man whose brother has died in a high-speed police chase four days before. The man, who has been looking for a police officer in order to exact revenge, shoots Pierlet in the heart.


Thomas Brian King
April 1978:
Const. Thomas Brian King, 40, stops a car for a routine check in the north end of Saskatoon. The two men in the car attack him, forcing him into their vehicle, driving to the South Saskatchewan River and shooting him before throwing his body in the water. They allegedly stopped on the way to the river to brag to friends about what they were about to do, the memorial website says.


Allen Giesbrecht
January 1985:
Const. Allen Giesbrecht, 31, is investigating a report that a man in Vegreville, Alta, is brandishing a shotgun. He and four other officers arrive at the house, which is adorned with signs scrawled with anti-RCMP slogans. Giesbrecht is shot in the stomach and dies while searching the house, despite wearing a protective vest.


Gordon Kowalczyk
January 1987:
Special Const. Gordon Kowalczyk, 35, answers a call from a gas station near the Calgary Airport, saying a customer had left without paying for gas. He stopped a suspect, who shot him at point-blank range from his truck before stepping out of the vehicle and firing five more shots at the dying policeman.

December 2001:
Const. Dennis Strongquill, 52, and his partner stop a truck near Russell, Man., intending to cite the driver for failing to dim his high beams. A passenger gets out of the truck and starts shooting. The two officers jump back in their RCMP SUV and start driving toward a nearby RCMP detachment. In the parking lot, the pursuing truck smashes the police SUV into a fence, trapping Strongquill inside. Again, a passenger gets out and fires a shotgun at Strongquill, fatally wounding him before fleeing the scene.

March 2005:
Four RCMP officers are shot to death while investigating a marijuana grow operation on a farm near Rochfort Bridge, Alta. The alleged gunman is also found dead inside a Quonset hut hosting the hydroponic operation

______________________________________

The RCMP is the federal and national police force in all of Canada, but it also serves as the provincial and municipal force in some parts of Canada.

In all provinces except Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, the RCMP acts as the provincial police force. While larger cities usually have their own police forces, the RCMP provides policing services to about 200 municipalities across Canada.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary polices Labrador West, Corner Brook and certain areas on the Avalon Peninsula, including St. John's, accounting for about 40 per cent of the province's population. The RCMP has responsibility in areas outside the RNC's jurisdiction. The Mounties are also the police force in nearly 200 First Nations communities.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/rcmp/

[Maximal]

Critics question RCMP decisions in Roszko case
CTV.ca News Staff

One of the officers gunned down on a northwest Alberta farm wasn't even on duty that day.

"Peter Schiemann wasn't even supposed to be working," said Kim Connell, who commanded the Mayerthorpe, Alta. detachment for 10 years -- one that lost three members to James Roszko last Thursday.

"He was just dropping a member off there on his way to the city. He wasn't even in uniform. That's Peter. Helping someone out."

It was reported Sunday that one of the officers at the scene wasn't wearing body armour and wasn't armed.

As a veteran, Connell was very familiar with the reputation of Roszko -- a convicted pedophile who was jailed in April 2000, but who had a reputation as a volatile, violent, gun-loving, RCMP-hating man.

But the current deputy mayor of Mayerthorpe suspected some of the younger officers might not have been as familiar with Roszko.

The events started on Wednesday afternoon, when a bailiff went onto Roszko's land to repossess his pickup truck.

Roszko was seen barrelling across a field, breaking through a fence and disappearing down a gravel road -- but not before he released two guard dogs.

Two RCMP officers then showed up to accompany the bailiffs onto the land.

In Roszko's Quonset hut, several new vehicles were found being cut up for parts along with some other, apparently stolen goods. About 20 mature marijuana plants, about 100 young ones in pots, and a few pounds of leaves were also located.

Officers specializing in marijuana grow ops showed up. They left around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, leaving the local officers to keep watch.

Two more officers arrived in the morning.

Just as auto theft officers were showing up, they heard gunfire. Roszko appeared outside the Quonset, fired on them, was shot at in return and then disappeared back inside the Quonset.

"They were just walking back into the Quonset. Of course the four would be walking together talking as you walk in," Connell speculated.

When tactical officers finally got into the Quonset, they found Roszko and four officers dead. Besides the 25-year-old Schiemann, three other officers died: Const. Anthony Gordon, 28; Const. Leo Johnston, 34; and Const. Brock Myrol, 29.

Brenda Storm, a bailiff who has dealt with Roszko, told CTV News that she would be surprised if he didn't have a secret entrance into the Quonset.

One mystery is how Roszko got back to his farm, and whether he -- in the RCMP's words -- "ambushed" the officers by either attacking them from a hiding place within the Quonset or by sneaking in from outside and catching the officers inside unawares.

For one thing, his truck was found more 20 km from his farm, raising the question of whether he had help getting back to it. The RCMP wants to know the answer to that question too.

'Should have waited'

A former RCMP superintendent is critical of how the the operation was handled, saying the force should have waited until Roszko was in custody.

"They should not have gone in there," said Clyde Kitteringham, who now lives in Oakville, Ont.

"There would have been nothing wrong ... it would be prudent, the wise thing to do in those circumstances to withdraw to the perimeter of the property and wait to find out where he is."

Other officers have said a tactical team, which has much more firepower available to it, should have been used to secure the scene.

The RCMP has rejected such criticisms.

"How these people outside the process are able to offer expert opinion baffles me," RCMP Cpl Wayne Oakes told The Canadian Press.

Kevin Haggerty, a University of Alberta criminologist, told CFRN News that four officers was a significant deployment of force.

"You cannot call in the tactical team every time you have a fairly straightforward (situation)," he said.

RCMP Chief Superintendent Raf Souccar defended the actions of the supervisors.

"Like any other investigation that we conduct, based on the intelligence that we have, we assess every situation on its own and we make a determination on what we believe the threat to be," Souccar told CTV News.

Ron Stevens, Alberta's justice minister, announced Monday that the province would be conducting its own fatality inquiry once the RCMP concludes its own review.

[CableMonkey]

He will be missed.

[magashna91]

i didn't read it all i don't have the attention span

[Orin]

He will be missed.

It's actually 'they,' as in four, will be missed.

[jacobfie]

That Was Quite Chilling, Good Post Orin, Keep It Up

[MD Willington]

"March 2005:
Four RCMP officers are shot to death while investigating a marijuana grow operation on a farm near Rochfort Bridge, Alta. The alleged gunman is also found dead inside a Quonset hut hosting the hydroponic operation "

Father in law told us about that one...

There's a reason we packed a sidearm, 30-06 and a remi 870 in the back 40 when we went hiking...too many grow ops in the bush...they are the equivalent of the old time moonshiners...