'HE WAS DANGEROUS. HE HAD LOTS OF GUNS.'

SUSPECT'S TROUBLES STARTED WITH DRUGS, ENDED WITH JAIL TIME, SHOCKED FATHER
SAYS

ROCHFORT BRIDGE, ALTA., CALGARY and TORONTO -- Bill Roszko says his
son, Jim, didn't get the start at life he would have liked.

Mr. Roszko said his wife left him on his own in 1970 to raise their
eight children -- five boys and three girls -- on the family's
320-acre (128-hectare) farm in northwestern Alberta. Jim was 12 at the
time.

"He didn't get the good bringing-up that he needed," Mr. Roszko said
yesterday from his home near Rochfort Bridge, about 130 kilometres
northwest of Edmonton.

His son was no angel, but Mr. Roszko said he didn't expect him to die
at age 46 in a drug raid that also claimed the lives of four Mounties
at Jim's farm, not far from Rochfort Bridge.

"I feel awful. I hate it very much. It's just awful," Mr. Roszko
said.

Neighbours who gathered at his farm gate yesterday described the young
Mr. Roszko as a dangerous man who lived "on the edge" and had a
fondness for firearms.

An area woman, who did not want to be identified, called him "a time
bomb.

"He was always questionable, he was dangerous, he had lots of guns, it
was common knowledge," said the woman whose husband had delivered fuel
to Mr. Roszko's farm.

When her husband arrived to make his deliveries, Mr. Roszko would meet
him at his locked gate and call off his menacing guard dogs. She noted
that there aren't many trees on his farm, allowing him to "see anyone
coming for a long ways.

"It's not a place that is a comfortable place to be. He's got attack
dogs, he's got lots of weapons, he's prepared."

The woman, who has lived in Mayerthorpe, a nearby village of about
1,600 people, said Mr. Roszko was a recluse who she hadn't seen around
town in eight years or so.

His father said his son's troubles began when he started hanging out
with the wrong crowd. He started dabbling in drugs. He landed in jail
a few times for offences connected to drugs and "bad behaviour" with
police, as Mr. Roszko put it.

"He was on a bad road going from bad to worse," Mr. Roszko
said.

According to a 1993 news report, the younger Mr. Roszko was charged in
December of that year with 12 offences, including: impersonating a
police officer, unlawful confinement, obstruction of justice,
trespassing on school property, pointing a firearm, assault with a
weapon, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public, counselling a
person to commit an indictable offence, failing to comply with bail
conditions and careless driving.

After news broke of the tragedy, half a dozen neighbours gathered near
the farm yesterday afternoon with binoculars and video recorders. Jim
Roszko leased out the land to ranchers for grazing cattle. His mother
and stepfather also live on the property in a white trailer.

The neighbours described him as a man, who wasn't imposing at just 5
foot 8 and about 140 pounds. He was well-spoken, they said, but kept
to himself.

"He's a serious guy," said a neighbour who didn't want to be
identified, "I wouldn't want to be on the other end of him. He's on
the edge.

"I'm not surprised. I knew this was coming. They [the police] tried to
take his guns away a few years ago, but they didn't get them all," the
neighbour added.

The neighbour woman reproached the court system yesterday, saying it
was too lenient.

"It's just a sad situation for the area. It's just too bad. The police
have dealt with this man before, and it's the court system that let's
him out. They [the police] just do what they can do. And it's too bad
that he's back in our community, or anybody's -- it's just bad that
he's out there."

Bill Roszko said he hadn't spoken to his son in about nine years. Even
before that communication between them wasn't always easy. But in
1990, their relationship seemed to turn a corner, the 80-year-old
retired farmer recalled yesterday.

Jim tried his hand at farming raising cattle and growing crops north
of Rochfort Bridge. For four years, Bill taught him the ropes, hoping
to set his son on the straight and narrow. He also tried to guide him
in a "good, godly way."

But the relationship and the career soured when a drought came in
1994, bringing a bad hay year and crushing Jim's hope.

"He quit. He wandered off and got into a bad situation," Mr. Roszko
said. "It's unfortunate you know. He ran off the good trail."