Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB) Copyright: 2005 The Calgary Sun Contact: http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67 Authors: Paul Cowan and Doug Beazley, Sun Media Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) GUNMAN KILLS FOUR MOUNTIES Raid on Grow Op One of Nation's Worst RCMP Bloodbaths ROCHFORT BRIDGE, Alta. -- A crazed gunman with a simmering hate for cops shot four RCMP officers to death at a rural marijuana grow operation yesterday, the country's worst police bloodbath in more than a century. Mounties exchanged shots with gunman James Roszko, 47, on a farm near the village of Rochfort Bridge, 123 km northwest of Edmonton around 10 a.m. Four hours later, they moved in to find their fallen comrades, three from Mayerthorpe and one from Whitecourt, and the gunman dead. Family members last night confirmed one of the officers was Const. Brock Myrol, 29, who had only been on the job since Feb. 14. "The loss of four police officers in a single event is unprecedented. You would have to go back to 1885 to the Northwest Rebellion to see something of this scale," a devastated K-Division commanding officer Bill Sweeney said at the Mayerthorpe RCMP detachment. "Four members of the RCMP were killed today in the line of duty. This is a terrible shock for all of us and we are in a state of mourning. Our hearts and prayers are with the families." Killing police was something Roszko had apparently planned for some time. Sources say he recently offered a local teen $10,000 to shoot and kill a police officer, going so far as to drive him to the officer's home in a "dry run" and showing the teen how to break in. Police sources said the grow operation was raided by the Edmonton Police Service and RCMP Green Team Wednesday night. The raid was preceded by a brief vehicle pursuit of Roszko, which ended after he evaded police, said a source. At the grow operation, two officers remained on guard when the rest of team left around 3 a.m. yesterday. "They were shot and two more who came out to the farm later in the morning were ambushed," said one source. Sources said two of the officers were executed as they sat in their cruiser. The gunman continued to fire as other officers arrived on scene. One source said the gunman was armed with a Heckler & Koch .308 semi-automatic assault rifle, specially made for combat. The site was secured and the air space over the area was closed. Tactical resources were deployed, including the RCMP emergency response teams, and major crimes, as well as an Edmonton city police chopper. A total of about 35 officers swarmed the area. About 20 soldiers and three vehicles from the Edmonton Garrison were also dispatched to the scene of the shootout, but it ended shortly before they arrived. Around 2 p.m., three dark-coloured SUVs drove onto the property. Roughly 10 minutes later, two officers wearing paramilitary fatigues and bullet-proof vests appeared at a fence in front of the quonset barn, a long low metal structure. The Mounties had their rifles aimed inside the barn. At the same time, another group of similarly equipped officers approached the barn from the north side with a pair of police dogs -- out of the line of sight of a possible shooter in the barn. Tactical officers waited another 10 or 15 minutes, and while paying attention to an object on the ground, made their way to the barn entrance using a tractor as cover. Two officers then appeared walking away from the barn, dragging what appeared to be a body by the elbows. Mounties then moved in en masse. "The scene was not what officers were hoping to encounter," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes from the Mayerthorpe detachment said last night. "We are deeply saddened by the death of four RCMP members." Oakes said the gunman was found dead in the quonset. Reports said he had taken his own life. "Support is being offered to the families of our fallen officers and to the members and families of our staff at both detachments," Oakes said. Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko called the slayings "senseless." "This is a tragic loss to the RCMP and to the community of Mayerthorpe. The officers were well-respected. We will be meeting with some of the family members shortly," he said. "It just goes to the fact that illegal grow operations... (are) all around us." The shooting was the worst involving the deaths of RCMP officers in recent history, but the worst occurred in March 1885 at the Battle of Duck Lake when a skirmish broke out between members of the North West Mounted Police and a group of Metis and Natives led by Gabriel Dumont. Twelve members of the police were killed. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake