A 'WICKED DEVIL,' A 'NUT CASE'

Family and Friends Describe an Unstable Loner Who Had a Reputation As
a Dangerous Man With a History of Animosity Toward Police

EDMONTON - James Roszko was trouble, a "nut case," who didn't like
police and had a lot of guns. Even his family and friends would tell
you that. His father would tell you he was "a wicked devil."

As news unfolded Thursday about the shooting deaths of four RCMP
officers on a farm near Mayerthorpe, people who knew the 46-year-old
said over and over again that they weren't surprised. Some felt it was
only a matter of time before Roszko's run-ins with police turned deadly.

"You ask anyone in Mayerthorpe, and say you are doing a drug raid on
Roszko's place, and they would say you are going to die, you are going
to get shot at," said Travis Fast, once one of Roszko's closest friends.

"He always said, 'If anything happens, I will kill them and then kill
myself.' That shows coward and psycho right there. That was his plan.
Kill as many people as he could before they got in his door."

RCMP didn't release the shooter's name Thursday, nor exactly how he
died. A bulletin sent to Edmonton police identified Roszko as the
suspect in the shooting. Roszko's family identified the heavily gated
farm as the place where he lived.

He was known to keep a spike belt on his driveway to discourage cars
from entering and his gate was marked with "No Trespassing" signs.

Roszko came from a large family, and was the second youngest of four
girls and four boys.

His father, William Roszko, said his son began getting into trouble
with drugs after his wife left the family. Although he lived just a
few kilometres from his son, he hadn't seen him in nine years. That
was the case with much of Roszko's family. Most of them had broken off
contact with him.

By late Thursday evening, no one had phoned William Roszko to tell him
his son was dead. He listened to the radio and watched TV for news of
what happened to the police officers. After he heard four officers
were dead, he called his son "a wicked devil."

"I feel awful. It's most terrible what happened," he said, his
80-year-old voice shaking. "I'm very much against the way James lived
and went about and the way he was in jail. I feel he's not my son."

Mounties who kept watch over the rural communities around Mayerthorpe
and Whitecourt knew Roszko well.

Court documents show that he had a history of blaming RCMP officers
for harassing him, and that the RCMP considered him dangerous.

In 1999, RCMP advised a bailiff serving a court order to wear a flak
jacket before entering Roszko's property because he had a long history
of assaults, a number of guns "and would most likely shoot anyone on
the property on sight."

Police and neighbours knew he booby-trapped his farm, which was
registered under the name of his mother, Stephanie Fifield, and her
husband, Warren.

In his report, the bailiff said everyone was warned not to use their
cellphones and be very careful of what they said on them because
Roszko had a radio scanner and listened to it constantly.

When he finally met with Roszko, he "basically blamed all of this
problems upon the RCMP," the bailiff said. "He said he couldn't work
because the RCMP harass him all the time."

The bailiff said he regularly encountered fear when he asked about
Roszko.

"It has been my experience that several people are quite afraid to
give information about the debtor ... they are really afraid of
retaliation of a violent sort by James Roszko."

The most recent charges against Roszko were two counts of mischief
against property under $5,000. One of those charges resulted from
damage to Donna and Steve Toker's vehicle as they tried to drive onto
Roszko's property on Aug. 28, 2004, while enumerating for the
provincial election.

Donna Toker said that the moment they saw the "No Trespassing" sign on
the property, they tried to turn around. But that was too late for
their car.

"He had a spike belt just off the county road and we had four flat
tires," Toker said.

Pauline Roszko was one of the few family members who kept in touch
with her brother. She said she last spoke with her brother just after
Christmas.

"There was a lot of animosity between him and the police," she said.
"They've been on his case for many, many years."

She said her brother filed a complaint against the RCMP in 1990, but
wouldn't give more details.

After an altercation with a local school trustee, Roszko was charged
with 12 offences, including unlawful confinement, pointing a firearm
and impersonating a police officer.

Guy Fontaine, his lawyer at the time, recalled Thursday how Roszko
already had a notorious reputation in the community because of
allegations that he inappropriately touched a child.

In April 2000, he was given a 21/2-year sentence for a sexual assault.
The circumstances of the assault weren't known Thursday.

Travis Fast and his older brother, Reco, said Roszko liked to hang
around younger men. The brothers were both close friends with him
several years ago. Roszko was about 20 years their senior. The
brothers said he never abused them.

"I never saw him with any girls, he was really into these guys, these
kids," said 27-year-old Travis Fast. "He said when they weren't
around, he missed them like sons."

Reco Fast said he used to work on Roszko's farm, helping to look after
cattle and grain crops.

"Then he got me a job on the rigs, then he got weird," he said. "He
should have been (treated) by a psychologist. He got charged with
unlawful confinement of my buddy, held him at gunpoint, held me, too.

"Just unstable, a nut case, then later he would be normal, phone me
and come over."

The Fast brothers said Roszko had guns and ammunition buried all over
his place. He also had grenades.

"I can't believe that a police officer would go out there and not
expect something to happen," Travis Fast said. "The last thing I would
ever do is put on a police uniform and turn up his driveway. There is
no way you would make it."

A History of Trouble

James Michael Roszko had a history of run-ins with the law. Here are
some of those incidents:

- - After an altercation with a local school trustee, Roszko, then 35,
was charged in December 1993 with 12 offences, including unlawful
confinement, pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon, possession of
a weapon dangerous to the public, impersonating a police officer,
counselling a person to commit an indictable offence, obstruction of
justice, failing to comply with bail conditions, careless driving, and
trespass in a school building. He went on trial for seven of those
charges in June 1996. It is unclear what he was convicted of.

- - In April 2000, Roszko was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced
to two and a half years in prison.

- - He faced another five charges in April 2001, stemming from a
September 1999 incident. He was charged with aggravated assault,
assault with a weapon, assault, pointing a firearm and use of a
firearm during commission of an offence after two men drinking at a
Mayerthorpe bar went to Roszko's property at 2:30 a.m. They wanted to
take some gasoline and warned him to stop harassing one of their
friends, who owed him money. Roszko met them with a gun, hit one of
the men and tried to shoot the other, but missed. The pair eventually
got the gun away from Roszko and assaulted him. They also were
charged. All the charges against Roszko were dismissed in October 2003.

- - Recently, he was charged with two counts of mischief against
property under $5,000. One of those charges stemmed from an Aug. 19,
2004, incident. The other occurred on Aug. 28, 2004, when the four
tires on Donna and Steve Toker's vehicle were punctured by a spike
belt as they approached the property in their job as enumerators for
the provincial election.