Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
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)

'OUR COUNTRY IS HURTING'

As police comb site where four Mounties died, Canadians ask why

Aching to Kill; Gunman a Psychopath, His Brother Says

A nation mourned yesterday, the day after four RCMP officers were shot
dead in a raid on a marijuana grow operation near this central Alberta
town.

But with the tears came many questions - some to be answered by
investigators combing the crime scene, and some by politicians already
discussing new laws to deal with drugs and violence.

Families of the dead constables - Peter Schiemann, 25, Anthony Gordon,
28, Lionide Johnston, 32, and Brock Myrol, 29 - spoke yesterday about
their pride and their pain.

But one family also pointed fingers.

"Our country is hurting," Colleen Myrol, Brock's mother, said in
statement she read to reporters. "We have lost four dedicated citizens
who were willing to do something about it."

James Roszko, the man who shot the officers and died shortly
afterward, was a psychopath who owned automatic weapons and was aching
for a 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, Alta., who is four years
older than his estranged brother.

"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?"

In her statement, Colleen Myrol said: "It is time that our government
takes a stand on evil.

"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 Prime Minister Paul Martin to change Canadian law 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.

But it is known 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.

At that time, Roszko was nowhere to be found, Constable Julie Letal of
the Mayerthorpe RCMP detachment said. "He'd bolted."

Two junior officers were left at the farm overnight to guard the
scene. Two others arrived Thursday morning, and the four entered a
large metal 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. They then 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."

He is believed to have ended the incident by fatally shooting
himself.

Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the soft body armour the officers were wearing
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
stepbrother - was not a close one.

After James was convicted of sexual assault, one side of the family
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 yesterday 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, George Roszko said.

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-law wife, Connie, 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. Family members decided to alert police, and Douglas was stopped
and arrested.

George Roszko said James 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 were numerous searches
there. They tried to find his automatic weapons numerous times. But
he's not stupid."

Court orders prohibiting James Roszko 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 their work has become
increasingly dangerous in the last two decades. Drugs and the weapons
used to protect them pose a particular threat.

In British Columbia, for example, police officers investigating
marijuana grow operations have to be 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 RCMP drug squad officer said as profits from the marijuana
business have risen, so too has the risk for the officers who take
them down. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake