INDEPTH: CRIME
In the line of duty: Deaths of RCMP officers
CBC News Online | March 4, 2005
An unidentified man lowers the flag outside of the Mayerthorpe Legion to half-mast after four RCMP officers were gunned down on March 3, 2005. (CP PHOTO/John Ulan)
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Until March 3, 2005, a total of 187 officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and its forerunner force, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), had died in the line of duty since the 1880s. The shootings of four young officers in Rochfort Bridge, Alta., raise that total to 191.
In the early years, the causes of police deaths reflected the harsh reality of bringing order to Canada's sparsely populated and geographically challenging West and North. More than a dozen officers were thrown from their horses, drowned in raging spring rivers or froze to death before the dawn of the 20th century.
Many more were died in combat with Métis who sought to establish an independent homeland in the Battle of Duck Lake, among other skirmishes of the Northwest Rebellion.
More than 100 officers died in boating accidents, car accidents or plane crashes, according to the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial database of Canadian law enforcers who died in the line of duty. (Click here to see the memorial database.)
The RCMP alone has marked the deaths of 155 of its officers since its formation in 1920 – 19 in work-related plane crashes alone. Car crashes claimed another 53 lives, many of them taking place while officers were doing their jobs in the worst weather conditions or while they were pursuing suspects wanted for major crimes.
But 59 officers of the RCMP and NWMP have now been killed in the line of duty for merely being a police officer. Here are some of the most chilling cases, as detailed in the memorial database.
August 1920:
Const. Ernest Usher, 26, is shot and killed while trying to arrest train robbers at Bellewae, Alta.
January 1922:
Const. William Doak, 39, stationed at Tree River, N.W.T., is shot to death in his sleep by an escaped prisoner.
John Shaw
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October 1935:
Const. John Shaw, 39, of the RCMP and a municipal police officer from Benito, Man., Const. William Wainwright, are shot while transporting three youths suspected of armed robbery in Saskatchewan. The youths dump their bodies in a farmer's trough, where they are found three days later. The youths later try to enter Banff National Park in Alberta, but run into an RCMP spot check. They open fire, killing two RCMP officers: Const. George Harrison, 29, and Sgt. Thomas Wallace, 39. The youths are themselves eventually shot to death.
Elwood Keck
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June 1962:
Const. Elwood Keck, 25; Const. Gordon Pedersen, 25; and Const. Donald Weisgerber, 23, are shot to death while attempting to apprehend gunman George Booth, who is firing his army surplus rifle from the Peterson Creek Bridge in Kamloops, B.C.
Roger Pierlet
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March 1974:
Const. Roger Pierlet, 23, is working alone on an overnight patrol in Cloverdale, B.C., when he stops a car while looking for vandals. It turns out to contain two men, one of them a Langley man whose brother has died in a high-speed police chase four days before. The man, who has been looking for a police officer in order to exact revenge, shoots Pierlet in the heart.
Thomas Brian King
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April 1978:
Const. Thomas Brian King, 40, stops a car for a routine check in the north end of Saskatoon. The two men in the car attack him, forcing him into their vehicle, driving to the South Saskatchewan River and shooting him before throwing his body in the water. They allegedly stopped on the way to the river to brag to friends about what they were about to do, the memorial website says.
Allen Giesbrecht
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January 1985:
Const. Allen Giesbrecht, 31, is investigating a report that a man in Vegreville, Alta, is brandishing a shotgun. He and four other officers arrive at the house, which is adorned with signs scrawled with anti-RCMP slogans. Giesbrecht is shot in the stomach and dies while searching the house, despite wearing a protective vest.
Gordon Kowalczyk
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January 1987:
Special Const. Gordon Kowalczyk, 35, answers a call from a gas station near the Calgary Airport, saying a customer had left without paying for gas. He stopped a suspect, who shot him at point-blank range from his truck before stepping out of the vehicle and firing five more shots at the dying policeman.
December 2001:
Const. Dennis Strongquill, 52, and his partner stop a truck near Russell, Man., intending to cite the driver for failing to dim his high beams. A passenger gets out of the truck and starts shooting. The two officers jump back in their RCMP SUV and start driving toward a nearby RCMP detachment. In the parking lot, the pursuing truck smashes the police SUV into a fence, trapping Strongquill inside. Again, a passenger gets out and fires a shotgun at Strongquill, fatally wounding him before fleeing the scene.
March 2005:
Four RCMP officers are shot to death while investigating a marijuana grow operation on a farm near Rochfort Bridge, Alta. The alleged gunman is also found dead inside a Quonset hut hosting the hydroponic operation
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