GUNMAN KILLS FOUR MOUNTIES

Raid on Grow Op One of Nation's Worst RCMP Bloodbaths

ROCHFORT BRIDGE, Alta. -- A crazed gunman with a simmering hate for
cops shot four RCMP officers to death at a rural marijuana grow
operation yesterday, the country's worst police bloodbath in more than
a century. Mounties exchanged shots with gunman James Roszko, 47, on a
farm near the village of Rochfort Bridge, 123 km northwest of Edmonton
around 10 a.m.

Four hours later, they moved in to find their fallen comrades, three
from Mayerthorpe and one from Whitecourt, and the gunman dead.

Family members last night confirmed one of the officers was Const.
Brock Myrol, 29, who had only been on the job since Feb. 14.

"The loss of four police officers in a single event is unprecedented.
You would have to go back to 1885 to the Northwest Rebellion to see
something of this scale," a devastated K-Division commanding officer
Bill Sweeney said at the Mayerthorpe RCMP detachment.

"Four members of the RCMP were killed today in the line of duty. This
is a terrible shock for all of us and we are in a state of mourning.
Our hearts and prayers are with the families."

Killing police was something Roszko had apparently planned for some
time.

Sources say he recently offered a local teen $10,000 to shoot and kill
a police officer, going so far as to drive him to the officer's home
in a "dry run" and showing the teen how to break in.

Police sources said the grow operation was raided by the Edmonton
Police Service and RCMP Green Team Wednesday night.

The raid was preceded by a brief vehicle pursuit of Roszko, which
ended after he evaded police, said a source.

At the grow operation, two officers remained on guard when the rest of
team left around 3 a.m. yesterday.

"They were shot and two more who came out to the farm later in the
morning were ambushed," said one source.

Sources said two of the officers were executed as they sat in their
cruiser.

The gunman continued to fire as other officers arrived on scene. One
source said the gunman was armed with a Heckler & Koch .308
semi-automatic assault rifle, specially made for combat.

The site was secured and the air space over the area was
closed.

Tactical resources were deployed, including the RCMP emergency
response teams, and major crimes, as well as an Edmonton city police
chopper. A total of about 35 officers swarmed the area.

About 20 soldiers and three vehicles from the Edmonton Garrison were
also dispatched to the scene of the shootout, but it ended shortly
before they arrived.

Around 2 p.m., three dark-coloured SUVs drove onto the
property.

Roughly 10 minutes later, two officers wearing paramilitary fatigues
and bullet-proof vests appeared at a fence in front of the quonset
barn, a long low metal structure.

The Mounties had their rifles aimed inside the barn. At the same time,
another group of similarly equipped officers approached the barn from
the north side with a pair of police dogs -- out of the line of sight
of a possible shooter in the barn.

Tactical officers waited another 10 or 15 minutes, and while paying
attention to an object on the ground, made their way to the barn
entrance using a tractor as cover.

Two officers then appeared walking away from the barn, dragging what
appeared to be a body by the elbows.

Mounties then moved in en masse.

"The scene was not what officers were hoping to encounter," RCMP
spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes from the Mayerthorpe detachment said last
night.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of four RCMP members."

Oakes said the gunman was found dead in the quonset. Reports said he
had taken his own life.

"Support is being offered to the families of our fallen officers and
to the members and families of our staff at both detachments," Oakes
said.

Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko called the slayings
"senseless."

"This is a tragic loss to the RCMP and to the community of
Mayerthorpe. The officers were well-respected. We will be meeting with
some of the family members shortly," he said.

"It just goes to the fact that illegal grow operations... (are) all
around us."

The shooting was the worst involving the deaths of RCMP officers in
recent history, but the worst occurred in March 1885 at the Battle of
Duck Lake when a skirmish broke out between members of the North West
Mounted Police and a group of Metis and Natives led by Gabriel Dumont.

Twelve members of the police were killed.