Four Mounties Killed During Canadian Drug Raid

[Gipper]

4 Mounties killed at Alberta drug site
Last Updated Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:47:49 EST
CBC News

MAYERTHORPE, ALTA. - Four RCMP officers died Thursday when a man with a high-powered rifle began shooting during an investigation into a marijuana grow operation in northwestern Alberta.

"It's my sad duty to inform you that four RCMP officers, four brave young members have been killed in the line of duty," RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bill Sweeney told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference.

In police terms, said Sweeney, "You'd have to go back to 1885, to the Northwest Rebellion, to have a loss of this magnitude. It's devastating."

Police said a fifth person described as "a male suspect" had been found dead at the scene.

The suspect was known to police, said Cpl. Wayne Oakes.

He added that a number of police officers had been guarding the scene since the night before as part of an investigation into illegal marijuana growing and stolen property.

Two of the dead officers had been among the team who were at the Quonset hut overnight, Oakes said.

Three of the dead officers were members of the Mayerthorpe detachment of the RCMP and the fourth was from the Whitecourt detachment.

Officers stopped responding to radio calls

Earlier in the day, Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko told CBC News that details of the trouble that broke out at about 10 a.m. Tuesday morning at a farm near Rochfort Bridge were sketchy.

"As far as we know, there's four officers not responding to their radios, so there is an indication that something is serious here," Cenaiko said.

"[The situation] is still active and they have a number of resources that are on scene or going to the scene."

George Vanderburg, the provincial politician who represents the area, says he and Cenaiko were briefed on the situation around midday Thursday.

He could not provide further details except to say it was a "very serious and very tragic" situation.

Two SWAT teams, military called in

Sgt. Rick Oncescu, who is with the RCMP in Calgary, said two SWAT teams were called to the area.

A military spokesman said about 20 soldiers and two armoured vehicles were sent to the area after police called for military assistance at about midday.

Rochfort Bridge is located near the 1,700-resident town of Mayerthorpe, where the RCMP detachment is based, about 130 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

[Cascade]

Rest in Peace. :(

[little_cyclone]

A bad day for the Mounties:
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were shot and killed in a raid on a suspected marijuana-growing operation in rural Alberta on Thursday, in one of the deadliest days in the history of the national police force, a senior official said.

A suspect in the late-morning shootout was also killed when he turned his rifle on himself, Bill Sweeney, commanding officer of the RCMP in Alberta, told reporters.


The incident erupted near the town of Mayerthorpe, about 87 miles northwest of Edmonton, where the Mounties were investigating the "grow-op" inside a farm building, officials said.


After the shootings, police deployed emergency response teams and its major crimes unit. Edmonton's police department sent its helicopter, and authorities closed the airspace over the area.


Earlier, police had asked the army to provide armored vehicles from its base in Edmonton, but the vehicles turned back once the situation appeared to be over.

[cpwclarke]

I have a close friend with the RCMP. This is just devastating.

[IM911]

My condolences to our neighbors to the north.

[pikevt]

Just goes to show the real dangers we face in the job. Not to mention the lengths and depths these Organized crime factions will sink to. Watched the report on the Canadian News (pretty much all I get to watch being in the Northern most North) and they did a recap on these grow ops. Very elaborate, expensive and booby trapped.

[Chaser199]

Mounties mourn ambush victims

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- The man suspected of fatally shooting four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at a marijuana-growing operation was an angry person who loved guns and had had trouble with the law, relatives and media reports said on Friday.

The four junior Mounties were guarding a farmhouse believed to be used to grow marijuana and store stolen property when they were ambushed on Thursday by a man with a high-powered rifle. The killings took place near the town of Mayerthorpe, about 90 miles (140 km) northwest of Edmonton.

The deaths marked one of the bloodiest days in the history of the national police force and shocked a country with little violent crime. One of the dead officers had been on duty for just two weeks, said CTV television.

The suspect also shot and killed himself, police said. Relatives and the media identified him as Jim Roszko, 46.
A man who identified himself as Roszko's father said his son had always had an angry streak.

"Because of the drugs, you know, and the bad company with bad boys ... (that) dragged him off the good tracks," Bill Roszko told CTV.

"I don't want to have him as my son for what he was like, and the way things ended up. He is not my son," he said. The Globe and Mail newspaper quoted the elder Roszko as saying his son had spent time in prison.

Residents of Mayerthorpe called Roszko "a walking time bomb" with a love of guns, CTV television and the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

CBC radio said he had a history of violence and instability.
Police said the suspect was known to them -- a polite way of saying he had been in trouble with authorities.

The killings focused attention on Canada's booming illegal marijuana trade, which in the western province of British Columbia alone is worth an estimated C$5 billion ($4 billion). Police say much of the trade is dominated by organized crime.

Last November the Canadian government presented draft legislation which would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana -- an idea which has angered law enforcement officials in the United States.

The draft legislation would strengthen the penalties for those involved in large-scale marijuana growing operations.
Public Security Minister Anne McLellan said on Thursday she would look at further toughening the bill, under which growers caught with more than 50 plants face up to 14 years in jail.

The legislation would make possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana punishable by a fine of $150 for adults and $100 for minors. Users would not get a criminal record.
It has been 120 years, during the long rebellion by the mixed race Metis, made up of Indians and white settlers, and and Indians in western Canada, since so many national police officers have been shot and killed.

"I am very concerned about people in society who are acting in a way which is almost unknown in Canada, where people react in a way that is so violent it's almost incomprehensible," said Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who is Canada's top Mountie.

[Mo Trooper]

One was my friend, Pete Schieman. He was off duty when he was killed. It makes me sick to even think about it.

[MacLeod]

There is a power point slide show out there on the net that shows the national memorial service for the mounties. Anyone that has seen it, know what song that is that is played in the background?

[CanineCop]

My wife (who is the musical one in our family) says the artist is Josh Groban and she thinks the song is titled "Where You Are".
Our prayers are with them, John