Grace Johnston, left, and Doreen Jewell-Duffy outside the provincial court in Stony Plain, Alta., on Jan. 10, 2011. Both lost sons in the Mayerthorpe massacre in 2005.
Four young Mounties slain on an Alberta farm six years ago by a notorious "police hater" knew who they were dealing with but could have done little to prevent one of the darkest days in RCMP history, a long-awaited fatality inquiry heard on Monday.
The inquiry, delayed for years by a criminal prosecution, is meant to determine the circumstances that led to the deaths of constables Peter Schiemann, Leo Johnston, Anthony Gordon and Brock Myrol near Mayerthorpe, Alta., on March 3, 2005. The men were shot by James Roszko, who then killed himself.
Relatives of three of the slain officers attended Monday's inquiry (the fourth said it would be too painful), and asked only a few questions of the witnesses.
Reverend Don Schiemann, Peter's father, questioned a bailiff whose attempt to re-possess Mr. Roszko's truck one afternoon sparked the police involvement that led to the shooting. He asked the bailiff, a 38-year veteran of law enforcement, whether he believed the officers acted professionally.
"Absolutely," the bailiff, Robert Parry, replied firmly. It was all Mr. Schiemann needed. He didn't speak for the rest of the testimony.
The inquiry also heard painstaking details of the deaths from the doctor who performed the autopsies. Afterwards, the mother of Const. Johnston, who was shot four times, approached the podium, weeping. She asked the doctor if he could say which bullet struck first, and whether her son suffered.
He replied that he couldn't, but that one bullet struck and stopped his heart. Const. Johnston would have lived only 10 to 15 seconds after that.
"If there is any comfort in what we heard today, it's that Leo and the other three of his colleagues did not suffer," Mrs. Johnston said outside court
The wounds are still fresh that relatives of the two jailed men convicted in helping Mr. Roszko, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, tried to apologize to the mothers of two of the officers during a lunch break Monday, only to be rebuffed. The investigation that led to the arrest and conviction of the men delayed the inquiry.
"We know that this is the final thing that needs to be done, and it sure should have been done a long time ago," Colleen Myrol, Brock's mother, said in an interview. Her family didn't attend Monday's testimony.
"Mayerthorpe was a sad day, a tragic day in RCMP history," said Sergeant Tim Taniguchi, an RCMP spokesman who attended Monday.
Mr. Parry and fellow bailiff Mark Hnatiw arrived at the Roszko farm around 3 p.m. on March 2, the inquiry heard. Mr. Roszko unleashed his dogs on the property and fled, screaming obscenities at the two men. They called police to help them.
"They said, 'Whatever you do, don't go on the property. Stay off the property. You're at Jimmy Roszko's, just stay off the property until we get there," Mr. Parry told the inquiry. Police told Mr. Parry "basically that [Mr. Roszko]was a police hater and hated authority, unpredictable, and that he was known to have had weapons in the past."
By the time officers arrived, they took Mr. Parry's search warrant (for a truck) and scoured the property, including the shed where the officers would be slain the next day. They found stolen property and a marijuana grow-op. An RCMP officer then sought another search warrant for those items - that would maintain the police presence until the shooting the next morning.
Police and bailiffs waited to see if Mr. Roszko would return, but the Mounties kept a keen eye out. "They were extremely aware what was going on. They, on a continuous basis, were checking and looking," Mr. Parry testified.
The two bailiffs differ on when they left - Mr. Hnatiew said 6:30 p.m., Mr. Parry said 9 p.m. The next morning, after being driven to the farm by Mr. Cheeseman and Mr. Hennessey, Mr. Roszko killed the four officers.
A total of 11 bullets struck them. Const. Johnston and Const. Gordon were hit in the heart and would have died quickly. Const. Myrol was killed instantly by a shot to the head. Const. Schiemann's death took the longest - a minute, inflicted by three bullets that caused fatal internal bleeding, said Bernard Bannach, the doctor who performed the autopsies.
"At least he didn't suffer," Const. Gordon's mother, Doreen Jewell-Duffy, told The Globe and Mail. "Hearing it was just so hard. I don't think I'll ever have closure."
Mr. Roszko was struck by three or four bullets. A fatal blast to the chest came from his own rifle, which he pressed up to his body. He was shot in the hand, in the thigh (by a pistol bullet, possibly one from police) and suffered bruising on his front pelvis from, likely, another shot that bounced off a metal item in his waistband.
The bailiffs heard about the shooting the next morning.
"I remember going into shock," Mr. Hnatiw told the inquiry, his voice faltering. "It was just a horrible, horrible thing."
The inquiry is scheduled to take 11 days.
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Mayerthorpe inquiry explainer
What is the inquiry?
The fatality inquiry was struck up by the province in the wake of the shooting that left four Mounties dead, as well as the gunman who killed them. It's led by Provincial Judge D.R. Pahl and held in a court but will be, in the words of the judge, "somewhat informal." It will last 11 days. Lawyers for the province and RCMP will lay out evidence and question relevant witnesses.
What's its purpose?
It's meant to lay out the circumstances of the death, but won't find criminal responsibility - not that this is needed. It's widely accepted that James Roszko killed the officers before turning the gun on himself. Two men who helped Mr. Roszko return to the property before the shooting have since pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Why do it now?
The inquiry couldn't begin until criminal proceedings had wrapped up. Police arrested the two men who helped Mr. Roszko after a two-year investigation. They were charged in 2009. One is still appealing his sentence, but, with guilty pleas on the books, the inquiry is free to proceed.
Who will be called?
Two bailiffs who tried to seize Mr. Roszko's truck the day before the shootings testified Monday, as did the medical examiner. A senior officer who was on the scene the night before the shootings will testify Tuesday and Wednesday. Several other officers and a Crown prosecutor are also scheduled to speak.
Josh Wingrove