CANADA MOURNS MOUNTIES

Police Knew Killer Was a Risk, Warrant Shows

ROCHFORT BRIDGE, Alta. - An RCMP corporal cited concerns about
officer safety among his reasons for seeking a warrant to search James
Roszko's farm the day before four officers were killed at the farm
near Mayerthorpe, Alta.

"Roszko fled from the scene in a white truck and is believed to be in
the area of his property," Cpl. James Martin wrote on his application
for a warrant, granted Wednesday evening.

The Crown tried Friday to have the warrant sealed, but the Edmonton
Journal successfully argued against that.

The warrant shows police were well aware that Roszko was dangerous.
Martin cited "circumstances regarding officer safety" on his
application for the warrant.

Roszko is believed to have shot and killed the four RCMP officers on
Thursday. Three were based in Mayerthorpe, one in nearby Whitecourt.
The constables who were killed are:

- - Anthony Fitzgerald Orion Gordon, 28, Whitecourt detachment.

- - Lionide Nicholas Johnston, 34, Mayerthorpe.

- - Brock Warren Myrol, 29, Mayerthorpe.

- - Peter Christopher Schiemann, 25, Mayerthorpe.

Mayerthorpe RCMP were called at 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday by an Edmonton
bailiff trying to seize a 2005 Ford F350 truck on behalf of a car
dealership, Kentwood Ford.

Martin and Const. Peter Schiemann drove to the farm, near Rochfort
Bridge, about 110 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. The bailiff,
parked on the road, told the officers a man had come out of a Quonset
hut on the farm and shouted at him. He said the man released two
"Rottweiler-type" dogs. Shortly afterward, the bailiff saw a white
truck driving north across a field away from the farm.

After police arrived, the bailiff cut a lock on the farm gate, drove
up to the Quonset hut and went inside. He came out a few minutes later
and told the officers there were "several brand new trucks in pieces"
inside the large, metal building, according to the warrant.

In his warrant application, Martin said he saw a newer Ford truck with
the doors and interior removed. Police also found a Sierra truck with
the identity numbers removed, and various fenders, bumpers, dashboards
and new tires.

The officers found evidence of a marijuana grow operation, Martin
wrote, including "20 mature marijuana plants."

A barrel outside the Quonset contained several kilograms of marijuana
leaves.

The grow operation was investigated Wednesday night, but the stolen
property investigation was to take place Thursday morning, said Const.
Julie Letal, who was at the scene Wednesday.

Before she left, Letal said, she offered a word of warning about the
man police were dealing with.

"When I went, I told the boys to make sure everything's clear, because
he's watching us," Letal said of Roszko.

It was common knowledge that Roszko had weapons on his farm, said
Letal.

Two officers were left to guard the farm overnight. On Thursday
morning, two other officers arrived at the farm.

At 9:15 a.m., two members of the Edmonton RCMP auto theft unit arrived
at the farm.

As they stepped from their police car, they heard gunshots inside a
large metal Quonset hut. At least one officer returned fire, and they
retreated to the road and called for backup.

More than four hours later, when an RCMP tactical team stormed the
Quonset hut, they found Roszko and the four officers dead.

Roszko killed the four men with what police described as a
"rapid-fire, high-powered rifle." Police have not said whether the
gunman killed himself or died some other way.

Cpl. Wayne Oakes said the body armour the officers wore wasn't heavy
enough to stop high-calibre bullets.

Police are waiting for autopsy results and forensics tests to tell
them how Roszko and the officers died.

One of Roszko's brothers questions why police would risk a run-in with
his brother, given what they should have known about his background.

"Why in the hell would they ever send those cops down there like
that?" said George Roszko of Whitecourt, who is four years older than
his estranged brother James.

George Roszko said his brother had automatic weapons hidden on his
farm.

"The RCMP were out-powered," he said. Court orders prohibiting James
from holding weapons meant nothing to him, his brother said.

The families of the murdered officers spoke Friday about their pride
and their pain. Myrol's relatives pleaded with politicians to toughen
Canada's laws.

"It is time that our government takes a stand on evil," Myrol's mother
Colleen said in statement she read to reporters in Red Deer, Alta. The
family asked Prime Minister Paul Martin to make changes to the laws to
"give the courts real power," and "give the power back to the police."

In Ottawa, delegates at the Liberal policy convention held a minute of
silence and sang the national anthem to show respect for the fallen
officers.

Martin addressed the killings -- the worst tragedy to befall the
Mounties since the 1885 North-West Rebellion -- in his speech to the
Liberal policy convention.

"Yesterday was a very hard day for our nation," said Martin as he
began his address.

"More than 130 years ago, Sir John A. MacDonald created the Mounted
Police to ride into the North West Territories ... to keep order, to
bring law.

"For generations, for almost as long as there has been a Canada, the
Mounties have served us, they have protected us, they have kept us
safe."

Roszko had three sisters, four brothers and one step-brother. After he
was convicted of sexual assault, one side of the family supported the
man they called Jimmy, while the other wanted nothing to do with him.

Roszko's estranged sister Marion and brother-in-law Tim White dropped
off flowers for the slain officers Friday 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, said George Roszko.

Douglas, a logger in nearby Whitecourt, hated some things about this
brother Jimmy, but also idolized him. After he heard his brother was
dead, Douglas told his common-law wife that he was going to
Mayerthorpe to take action, George said.

Douglas got in his truck and drove down the highway to the crime
scene, but George decided to alert police and his brother was stopped
and escorted home.

"They picked him up right near the crime scene," George said. "When he
showed up, they got him."