RCMP constable shot 3 times, affidavit says

Last Updated: Friday, October 26, 2007 | 10:13 PM ET

CBC News

RCMP Const. Chris Worden was found with three bullet wounds more than two hours after a witness heard several shots, according to a police affidavit.

Worden was pronounced dead in hospital Oct. 6 in Hay River, N.W.T., a small community near Great Slave Lake, 400 kilometres south of Yellowknife.

RCMP Const. Chris Worden died after being shot in the Northwest Territories on Oct. 6.
(Courtesy of the RCMP)

The 30-year-old constable was found lying on his side, curled up with his hand near his face, with gunshot wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen, the affidavit says.

The affidavit, filed to seek a search warrant, is based on interviews conducted by police officers. The allegations have not been proven in court. 

Six days after Worden was shot, Emrah Bulatci was found hiding in an Edmonton townhouse. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

The affidavit says Worden went to a public housing complex in Hay River alone after police received a call about a suicidal male.

After dealing with that call, the officer spotted a taxi in front of another residence down the street. He pulled his car over behind the cab and got out. 

Two men were inside the cab, and a third man — who police say was Bulatci — was walking towards it. Worden was about to search the man when he ran away.

Witnesses said the officer chased the man into a nearby wooded area. Then four shots were heard.  

Worden was found 2½ hours later. 

The officer, who is originally from Ottawa, is survived by his wife and infant daughter.

Police launched a nationwide manhunt for Bulatci on Oct. 7, the day after the homicide.

Five days later, Bulatci allegedly called a friend in Edmonton, crying, saying that "he had no other place to go."
 
The friend agreed to let him stay in a barricaded room in the basement of the townhouse where he lived.
 
They stayed there until police took both men into custody. The friend has been charged with acting as an accessory to murder after the fact.