Shawn Hennessey could never have imagined how it would all end when James Roszko, whom he described as a quiet loner, first came into the tire shop where he worked in Barrhead, Alberta.
On the afternoon of March 2, 2005 two bailiffs from Edmonton turned up at Roszko’s farm to repossess a pick-up truck. Roszko fled his property in the truck. But, instead of pursuing Roszko, the bailiffs and Mounties from the nearby Mayerthorpe detachment, who arrived minutes after Roszko fled, went exploring and discovered a marijuana grow-operation on the farm.
Roszko, looking for a place to hide his pick-up, called Hennessey asking if he could hide the truck at his house. Hennessey said no. But, later that evening Roszko turned up at Hennessey’s home brandishing a 9 mm Berretta pistol, demanding a rifle and a ride. It was the beginning of a nightmare that would draw Hennessey and his brother-in-law, Dennis Cheeseman, into the worst police massacre in modern Canadian history: the killing of four Mounties by James Roszko who later took his own life.
In an exclusive interview with the fifth estate’s Linden MacIntyre, Shawn and his wife, Christine Hennessey, reveal how their involvement with Roszko unfolded and how they were caught in an unrelenting RCMP investigation that would ultimately send Hennessey and Cheeseman to prison for the murder of four Mounties on Roszko’s farm on March 3, 2005.
But, are Hennessey and Cheeseman murderers, or are they Roszko’s collateral damage?
the fifth estate in 15 seconds
