Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Rick McConnell, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

FOUR BRAVE MEN - ONE EVIL GUNMAN

Questions Rise in Wake of Mountie Killings

Canadians mourned Friday for four young Mounties who died at the hands
of a violent, small-town bully who hated everything they stood for.

But as questions lingered about what went wrong during a police
stakeout Thursday morning, the scope of the tragedy emerged with
details about the officers found dead on a remote Alberta farm.

One of the police officers was the valedictorian just one month ago
for his RCMP graduating class.

Another was a young father, looking forward to the birth of his second
child.

One had a twin brother who is also a member of the force; both were
expert marksmen who wore special badges on their uniforms.

The fourth, and youngest, was the son of a Lutheran minister and a
schoolteacher.

And James Roszko, the man who killed them and died shortly afterwards,
was a psychopath who owned automatic weapons and was aching for the
chance to use them, his brother said.

"Why in the hell would they ever send those cops down there like
that?" said George Roszko of Whitecourt, who is four years older than
his estranged brother James Roszko who was also found dead.

"What in the hell were they thinking, that they were going on a
picnic? I mean, everybody knew him. The tragedy is that every
community has some kind of a violent, psychopathic criminal mind
living there, but when you know that, what are you doing, sending the
boys out on a picnic?"

Families of the dead constables --Peter Christopher Schiemann, Anthony
Fitzgerald Orion Gordon, Lionide Nicholas Johnston and Brock Warren
Myrol -- spoke Friday about their pride and their pain. But the Myrol
family also pointed fingers.

"It is time that our government takes a stand on evil," Colleen Myrol,
the mother of Const. Myrol, said in a statement she read to reporters.
"The man who murdered our son and brother was a person who was deeply
disturbed and ill.

"It is our duty as Canadians to stop and think how we are raising our
children. It is time to teach honour of our country. Brock knew that."

The family asked the prime minister to make changes to the laws, to
"give the courts real power," and "give the power back to the police."

Police offered few details of what happened Thursday morning on the
farm near Rochfort Bridge, about 110 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

What is known is that RCMP officers went to a farm owned by James
Roszko on Wednesday to assist a sheriff in serving a court order to
seize some property. While there, police found evidence of a marijuana
grow operation and stolen goods.

Two junior officers were left at the farm overnight to guard the
scene. Two others arrived Thursday morning and the four went inside a
large, metal Quonset hut in the farmyard.

At 9:15 a.m., police say, two members of the Edmonton RCMP auto theft
unit arrived at the farm. As they stepped from their police car, they
heard gunshots inside the hut. One officer returned fire, and they
retreated to the road and called for backup.

More than four hours later, when an RCMP tactical team stormed the
Quonset hut, they found the dead bodies of the four officers and the
gunman.

Roszko killed the four men with what police called a "rapid-fire,
high-powered rifle."

Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the soft body armour the officers wore wasn't
heavy enough to stop a high-calibre bullet.

The massive investigation now centres on several key questions, Oakes
said.

Police are waiting for autopsy results and forensics tests to tell
them how Roszko and the officers died.

A key question, Oakes said, is: "How did (Roszko) get back on to the
property?"

Roszko's family -- he had three sisters, four brothers and one
step-brother -- was not a close one. Members split after James was
convicted of sexual assault. One side supported the man the family
called Jimmy, the other side wanted nothing to do with him.

Roszko's estranged sister Marion and brother-in-law Tim White dropped
off flowers for the slain officers Friday at the Mayerthorpe RCMP station.

"Our greatest regrets go out to the cops and their families," Tim
White said. "It's brutal. They are all owed an apology."

When Roszko's estranged younger brother Douglas heard about Thursday's
shooting, he was angry at the RCMP, said his brother George Roszko.

While Douglas, a logger in nearby Whitecourt, hated some things about
his brother Jimmy, he also idolized him. After he heard his brother
was dead, Douglas told his common-on-law wife, Connie, that he was
going to Mayerthorpe to take action, George Roszko said.

Douglas got in his truck and drove down the highway to the crime
scene, outside of Mayerthorpe. They decided to alert police and their
brother was stopped and arrested.

George said James Roszko had automatic weapons hidden on his
farm.

"The RCMP were out-powered . . .," he said. "This is not your average
hunting rifle-style kind of a situation. There was numerous searches
there. They tried to find his automatic weapons numerous times. But
he's not stupid."

Court orders prohibiting James from holding weapons meant nothing to
him. "That ends right at the court desk," George Roszko said. "So,
here you've got a guy that is running around with automatic weapons,
and if he's not got the pistols, he's got the rifles."

Police officers and former officers say the dangers on the job have
increased over the past two decades. Drugs and the weapons used to
protect them pose a particular threat.

In British Columbia, police officers investigating marijuana grow
operations are constantly wary of booby traps. These include live
electrical wires connected to doorknobs and missing stairs on
staircases that descend into pitch-black basements. Armed crop
sitters, those paid to guard grow ops, are also a danger.

One retired former RCMP drug squad officer, who headed up a team that
busted numerous grow operations in northern B.C., said as profits from
the marijuana business have risen, so too has the risk for the
officers who take them down.

"Back in the old days, it would just be some guy doing it out of his
basement and you might get 50 or 60 plants," said the former officer,
who requested anonymity. "But these days it's thousands of plants, and
believe me, they're booby trapped and they have armed people looking
after them because their biggest fear is that they're going to get
ripped off by rival gangs."

The four officers killed Thursday were constables, all young men.
Three were from the Mayerthorpe detachment a few kilometres from James
Roszko's farm. The fourth was from the nearby Whitecourt detachment.

Const. Johnston, 34, was a competitive motorcycle racer before he
joined the force.

He suffered broken ribs and head injuries in a terrible crash at
Calgary's Race City Motorsport Park in 1997.

After a lengthy recovery, Johnston joined the RCMP in 2001 and was
posted to Mayerthorpe in April. His twin brother, Lee, is also an RCMP
officer.

The brothers were both expert marksmen, having received perfect scores
in their marksmanship trials.

"It was unique for both brothers to get perfect scores," said a family
friend. Their proficiency with guns entitled them to wear Crown
Pistols and Crown Rifles badges on their uniforms.

Const. Schiemann, 25, was from Stony Plain, just outside Edmonton. He
graduated from Concordia College in Edmonton in 2000 and went straight
into RCMP training. His father is a Lutheran minister and president
for the Lutheran Church in the Alberta and British Columbia district.
His mother is a schoolteacher.

Police work was Schiemann's "passion," said his brother, Mike. "He had
no regrets about doing what he did."

Const. Myrol loved to sing and strum a guitar around campfires with
his family, said cousin Joanne Myrol, an award-winning country music
artist.

She once tried coaxing him into a life in the music business, but knew
he'd picked a good path by choosing police work.

"I thought he'd be a perfect (Mountie)," she said. "He was in it for
the right reason. He wanted to help people and wanted to do what he
could to help society."

Const. Gordon was from Edmonton. He completed his training in Regina
in October 2002, and was posted to the Whitecourt detachment, where he
worked in general policing and highway patrol.

He and his wife were expecting their second child.

[sidebar]

WHAT HAPPENED

Officers Were Responding to Order to Seize Property

March 2 - Two RCMP members head to a rural residence near Rochfort
Bridge to help with a court order to seize property. The officers
discover a marijuana grow operation, and get a search warrant. In the
subsequent investigation, stolen property is found.

March 3, 4:30 a.m. - Two RCMP members are left to guard the property
until members of Edmonton's RCMP auto theft unit arrive to search for
stolen goods.

About 9 a.m. - Two more RCMP members arrive at the
property.

9:15 a.m. - Two members of the auto theft unit arrive to the sound of
gunshots coming from a Quonset hut on the property.

James Roszko emerges from the Quonset and fires on the auto theft
officers with a rapid fire assault rifle. The officers return fire as
Roszko retreats back into the building.

Edmonton and Red Deer emergency response teams are deployed to the
scene along with other support units. Airspace above the property is
closed as a precaution.

2:18 p.m. - After securing the area, authorities face no resistance
upon entering the Quonset. The bodies of four RCMP officers and James
Roszko are discovered inside. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake