GROW-OP COPS WARNED

Police officers involved in the grow operation bust that turned into a
bloodbath were warned not to go off exploring the site on their own. The
farm near Rochfort Bridge, 120 km northwest of Edmonton, was busted by the
city police-RCMP Green Team Wednesday night.

"We were told not to wander about in the dark out there," said Edmonton
city police team member Det. Darren Derko.

"We were told that the occupant of the farm had taken off earlier in the
day and that he was well-known to police and could have a firearm, even
though he was prohibited.

"It's not unusual to have warnings like that - it is very rare for there to
be an actual confrontation."

The Green Team officers went to the farm after Mayerthorpe Mounties went
there earlier in the day in connection with a court-ordered property
seizure and spotted the grow-operation.

The Green Team arrived around midnight with a search warrant and checked
out a large Quonset hut on the property.

Inside they found around 300 marijuana plants and evidence of a vehicle
chop shop, a car-parts theft operation.

Around 4:30 a.m., the Green Team left and two of the Mounties, who were
later slain, were left to guard the Quonset hut.

"They were so eager to learn and keen," said Derko.

According the RCMP, just before 9 a.m. two more Mounties arrived at the farm.

And 15 minutes after that, members of the RCMP's auto theft unit from
Edmonton pulled up.

They heard shots from the Quonset hut and came under fire from a man
carrying a rapid-fire carbine rifle.

They returned fire and the man retreated back into the Quonset hut.

The area was cordoned off and shortly after 2 p.m., Mounties moved in and
found the four officers and the gunman dead inside the Quonset.

Derko noted that firearms are more usually associated with rural grow-ops
than city ones.

"In the city, we are usually dealing with unoccupied houses, but the rural
ones, the operator often lives on site and has access to firearms," he said.

He added Green Team members were stunned by the deaths.

"We are all pretty shook up," he said.

"You know in the back of your mind things like this can happen but when
they do, you start re-evaluating."