When shooting deaths and injuries of RCMP take place, it rocks the entire nation.
Nearly 10 years ago, four Albertan Mounties were shot and killed when they walked into a hut located on a property in Mayerthorpe. It was a national tragedy, one in which Canadians coast to coast mourned.
Since then, the country has seen the 2006 shooting death of two RCMP members in Saskatchewan, last year’s shooting death of three members in New Brunswick and several other incidents that have put the lives of RCMP at threat, including St. Paul’s downtown shooting that injured three RCMP members last May.
On Saturday morning, Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond were shot at close range, when attempting to arrest a suspect in connection to a report of a stolen car in St. Albert. The shootings sparked an intense manhunt, which ended with shooter Shawn Rehn being found dead inside a rural St. Albert home. Wynn suffered a life-threatening injury and reports on Monday were that he was not expected to live.
The RCMP put their lives on the line every time members don their uniforms. They do so in the line of duty. They deal with anger, hatred, violence and simmering tensions and in the face of that, they face the pressure of expectations to remain professional and not respond with undue violence. We ask a lot of them and their loved ones, and they - and their families - deserve our eternal respect and gratitude.
They also deserve the most we can do to preserve their safety, whether it is in having the best equipment possible or the most information possible when responding to incidents.
Of Saturday’s shooting, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson noted Rehn had an “incredibly complex criminal history” and that he was well known to police. He was prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunitions for life. Given his criminal history, Paulson said there needed to be an in-depth investigation on whether “it was reasonable for this man to be walking around us.”
The public deserves those answers, moreover, the RCMP themselves do, for all they do and for all we ask.
