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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Mounties injured in Alberta shootout

Memories of Mayerthorpe resurface as officers undergo surgery

By: Bob Weber

Posted: 02/8/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

John Ulan / THE CANADIAN PRESS RCMP tactical team members depart from a road block north of the scene where two RCMP officers were involved in a shooting, east of Sedgewick, Alberta on at Tuesday, February 7, 2012.

KILLAM, Alta. -- A ghastly shudder of familiarity rippled through Alberta's police fraternity Tuesday with news that two RCMP officers had been shot and wounded at a rural residence.

The officers were airlifted to two different Edmonton hospitals and were undergoing surgery for "significant" injuries Tuesday night. Chief Supt. Rick Taylor told a news conference in Killam, a small town 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, that their precise medical conditions weren't known but they had been hit in the torso.

Enlarge Image

A RCMP officer is transported in an ambulance at the Killam Hospital in Killam, Alberta on Tuesday Feb. 7, 2012. Two RCMP officers were shot and wounded while attending a rural residence in Alberta on Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-The Community Press-Leslie Cholowsky (CP)

For many in the province, Tuesday's shooting evoked painful memories of the awful day in March 2005 when a self-professed cop hater named James Roszko cut down four officers while they were staking out his marijuana grow-op. Roszko then killed himself.

"It's pretty sombre in there," Taylor said of the Killam detachment. "A lot of the people that are in there tonight supporting one another are colleagues and friends of these officers. We're all waiting very patiently and waiting for good word to come back from Edmonton."

There was promising news: As the officers were being flown by air ambulance to Edmonton's Royal Alexandra and University hospitals, they were conscious and able to talk.

"They were able to give some information en route to the hospital," said Taylor.

Details of what exactly happened were murky on Tuesday night and the number of suspects was not clear.

Taylor said the officers had gone to a residence about 10 kilometres outside of Killam as part of an ongoing investigation that the small detachment had been looking into for the past week.

"A search warrant was granted for that residence and they attended there this afternoon," Taylor said.

Darcy Eskra, deputy mayor of Killam, said he was told one of the suspects in the shooting was dead, but Taylor would not confirm that.

At press time Tuesday night, dozens of RCMP officers had the rural property surrounded.

"RCMP personnel have contained the residence and efforts are currently underway to ascertain whether or not other persons are still in the structure," Taylor said. "We are looking for, we believe, a second male. We don't yet know whether he is in that residence or in the area around it.

"The first male, we believe, is still in the residence. We're just trying to assess that now."

Taylor said five detachments were scouring the area with two emergency response teams and air services.

Taylor said the identity of the officers was not being released, but one had five years service while the other had been on the job for two years.

Taylor could also not say whether the officers were wearing new and improved body armour, a suggestion that arose from the inquiries into the deaths of Constables Anthony Gordon, Leo Johnston, Brock Myrol and Peter Schiemann in Mayerthorpe.

Last September, the RCMP said it was starting to distribute the new protective gear to front-line officers. The plan was to issue more than 6,800 of the new bullet-proof vests before April 1, 2013.

The vests are to be worn by officers who are exposed or expect to be exposed to firearms that can penetrate soft body armour.

Premier Alison Redford was briefed on the case before an afternoon news conference. "Our hopes and prayers are with their families," she said.

People who live in the area reported seeing at least eight RCMP cruisers and an ambulance -- all with their lights flashing -- driving along Highway 13 shortly after the shooting happened.

Killam resident Darrin Holben said he knows the RCMP officers who were shot very well and said the news shocked him.

"You know what I thought right away? Mayerthorpe," he said, adding the two d officers are well known in the town.

"They're not just cops who go to their jobs... They're super guys."

-- The Canadian Press, with Postmedia News files

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2012 A7

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