I am stunned.
This is close to where some of my family members’ farms are located. 
How awful. I bet there will be a rather big state funeral for those four officers.
That’s horrible. Four officers from such a small detachment. Stuff like that isn’t supposed to happen at home.
4 more casualties of a stupid drug war. How unspeakably tragic.
It’s the worst single incident of police death in this country in 120 years.
All over some weed.
Senseless.
How awful. Such a waste of life. I just don’t think about the possibility of anything like that happening in Canada.
And what is Global news going to focus on tonight? Why the Liberals are the world’s worst people for thinking of decriminalizing pot since it causes so much harm. Geez.
My hearts go out to their families after these tragic, senseless, and unjustifyable deaths. All this for some green leaf that gets me to think of how wonderful art and poetry is, as I sit comfortably on my leather loveseat…
I knew a guy from highschool who was training to be in an Alberta detatchment. Haven’t heard the names of the officers yet, but I hope he wasn’t one of them.
I give Harper and his cronies 48 hours before he starts using this sickening incident to score political points.
More details in the news this morning.
Apparently, the guy who executed the police officer was well known in the area, and his own father referred to him as a devil.
One of the officers executed was a 29 year old young man who started with the RCMP on Valentines Day this year.
This is an unspeakably sad tragedy. My heart goes out to the community and family of the slain.
This really, really sucks.
And it’s unfortunate that some folk will use this as an opportunity to comment on the politics of legalization of pot. The guy sounded like a total maniac, and if it hadn’t been over this it would have been over something else.
My condolances to the families. My prayers for their souls.
They were murdered, not “executed.”
Very sad. One wonders how the hell this could have been allowed to happen. Such a senseless waste, all those families left behind.
How did one guy manage to kill four police officers?
I’m all for legalizing pot, but anyone who kills four police officers over some weed is highly unstable to begin with, and I suspect he would have blown a gasket at some point anyway. No one risks a life sentence to avoid a pot bust in Canada - you just don’t get much time for it. I know a guy who was busted transporting a large quantity of cocaine (as in, pounds of it), and got five years and was out in two.
The maximum penalty in Canada for cultivation of pot is 7 years. Most people don’t get the maximum, and those who do can be out in 1/3 time for good behaviour. Not typically the kind of thing you murder four police officers and then kill yourself to avoid.
May as well make that worst incident of police death ever. The Battle of Batoche was the culmination of an (arguably justified) armed uprising in which the NWMP were acting as a military force, not law enforcement.
Semi-auto rifle, catch the officers with their weapons holstered. Though four seems a bit high. You’d think the last guys would have had time to dive for cover. Anyways, it doesn’t appear that this was just over a bit of pot. I’ve seen references to both “stolen property” and an Edmonton auto-theft detachment, so it looks like the guy was involved in some car theft. And I heard his neighbour on the radio this morning say something to the effect that he was just out of jail, so we’ve got theft and very likely parole violations. The whole grow-op business seems ridiculously overblown to me.
May they rest in peace.
From everything I’ve heard so far, it sounds like the perp was quite unstable (a history of sexual assault and run-ins with the police, if I recall correctly, and the neighbours knew to stay away from his property or he’d shoot at them). When they interviewed his father, he didn’t sound like he was rowing with both oars either.
There’s always such a hue and cry when police officers shoot and kill someone who was getting violent or reaching for what appeared to be a weapon. Guess they know their business.
They went there to repossess a truck and not to raid a grow-op according to the below news site.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/03/05/rcmp-shooting050305.html