A knock at the door not soon forgotten Widow remembers hero husband, Winnipeg’s last officer killed in line of duty in 1970 stabbing By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Friday, Jun. 27, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/06/2025 (467 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has been 55 years since Mary Houston got the knock on her front door that the spouse of a police officer never wants to get.

It was in the early morning hours of June 27, 1970, when Houston opened the door and was told by Winnipeg police officers that her husband, Ron, a plainclothes detective, had been fatally stabbed while trying to arrest a man.

Besides his wife, Ron left behind two boys, aged five and two.

Ron Houston is the last Winnipeg police officer to die in the line of duty.

Houston lives at the same address where she received the knock 55 years ago.

“Ron always said if anything ever happened to him, they would be knocking at the door — I was just hoping it was an accident but, unfortunately, he was already dead,” she said recently from her home.

“It feels like yesterday. Every day, the memories come up no matter what. Fifty-five years seems a long time — and it is. I’m glad there have been no other fatalities.

“I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’ve gone through.”

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Eight Winnipeg police officers have died in the line of duty since the force was established in 1874, which happened a month after the city’s first mayor was elected and a little more than three months after it was incorporated as a city.

Winnipeg police Const. John Beattie was the first, on April 13, 1911, dying three weeks into his new career. The 28-year-old was at the scene of a downtown fire when he accidentally touched a live wire and was electrocuted.

Fifty-nine years later, Houston would become the eighth officer to die, when he was on a stakeout with his partner, Det. John DeGroot, in the 300 block of Stradbrook Avenue, looking for a suspected rapist, the Free Press wrote in a June 29, 1970 story.

Later accounts stated that when they spotted a suspect, and he bolted, the two officers gave chase, and DeGroot was able to grab 30-year-old Thomas Shand as he tried to jump a fence. After the two men fell to the ground, DeGroot felt a sharp pain in his chest but didn’t realize Shand, who had a knife, had stabbed him, puncturing both lungs.

Houston pulled his gun. The next thing DeGroot, who survived, remembered was the officer falling in front of him and saying, “He’s got me good, John.” Houston had been stabbed once in the heart.

Shand was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to hang. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, but the federal cabinet intervened in 1972 and commuted the sentence to life.

It wouldn’t matter. Shand hanged himself when he was out on parole in 1985.

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No current Winnipeg police officers were working at the time of Houston’s death. Most members weren’t even born when the slaying happened.

Former Winnipeg police chief Herb Stephen, who retired in 1992 and went on to found the Northwest Law Enforcement Academy, knew Houston.

“I knew him well,” Stephen said. “I was in charge of juvenile, so I knew Ron very well.

“He was a super guy. A really great guy.”

The former chief, now 91, said the Winnipeg Police Service has been fortunate for 55 years.

“In Toronto, they have (an officer death) happen every year and in the United States, it is a weekly thing.”

“Getting stabbed over a window peeper. I still can’t believe it.”

Stephen was on duty when Shand was arrested.

“We were very fortunate we were able to trace (the perpetrator) through the glasses he dropped,” he said.

“I was the one who sat with him until the assigned detective came in. That was a long time ago… looking at him, I was surprised he was the type that would do this but, over the years, you see many types who you can’t predict.”

Supt. George Labossière, who has been with the WPS since 1996, said even officers who weren’t born at the time of Houston’s death know his story.

“It is an important piece for us to remember and to honour those who have given their lives,” Labossière said.

“Sadly, there are far too many, despite the fact that we haven’t seen it in Winnipeg the last 55 years… our police colours, our members see that every day as they walk into the building.

“It is a reminder of the sacrifices that were made and the risk we take in wearing the uniform.”

Eleven months before Houston was slain, St. Boniface police Const. Leonard Shakespeare was shot and killed by armed robbers outside a store on Provencher Avenue.

Labossière said every year, on the fourth Sunday of September, members from both the Houston and Shakespeare families attend a memorial service for fallen officers.

“It pulls at my heartstrings,” he said.

“It means so much for them to go there and to honour that individual after the years have passed. We’re not going to forget and that’s the promise we made to our members: you will not be forgotten.”

Labossière said when a Canadian officer is killed in the line of duty, a memorial is set up at police headquarters.

“Our members sign a book and we send it off to the family,” he said. “This is important to us, to have that time. It is part of the healing process in place during those critical moments.”

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Houston was 35 when he was stabbed. Today, he would be 90.

His wife says she regularly visits his grave in St. Mary’s Cemetery. A Winnipeg police crest is etched into his gravestone.

She raised their two sons by herself and worked as a part-time accountant at home.

“Every day is the same,” Mary said. “You get up, and it’s another day — and you thank God for it.”

She said Ron worked as a police officer for seven years before leaving to do other jobs for a few years. He went back in 1966.

She said he wasn’t even supposed to work that night.

“It wasn’t supposed to be his shift. Someone else took the night off and he had to go in because they were short. That should have been his night off.

“Now, this is all just part of our history.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca