The Mayerthorpe tragedy was a fatal shooting that occurred on March 3, 2005, on the farm of James Roszko, approximately north of Rochfort Bridge near the town of Mayerthorpe in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Roszko shot and killed four Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) constables: Anthony Gordon, Lionide "Leo" Johnston, Brock Myrol and Peter Schiemann. He then committed suicide. The attack occurred as the officers were executing a search warrant for stolen property and a marijuana-growing operation on the farm. Two individuals who were not present at the shooting, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, pled guilty to manslaughter for assisting Roszko to return to his farm.
The incident was the worst one-day loss of life for the RCMP since five officers drowned on June 7, 1958, and the worst multiple-officer killing in contemporary Canadian history.
Incidents
Initial contact with Roszko On the afternoon of March 2, 2005, two civil bailiffs went to the farm owned by James Roszko to repossess a truck he had purchased, but not made any payments on. The bailiffs arrived around 3:00pm. There was a metal gate blocking the road into the farmyard. When Roszko saw the bailiffs, he released two large aggressive Rottweilers. The bailiffs decided to call the RCMP, and the officer who responded to their call warned them not to go onto the property until the RCMP arrived. Roszko had a criminal record, with violent and sexual offences, and was subject to a firearms possession prohibition. He was known to members of the Mayerthorpe RCMP Detachment."Report to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General – Public Fatality Inquiry", March 3, 2011, p. 5.
Roszko swore at the bailiffs and drove off in a truck. The bailiffs thought it may have been the truck they were to seize, but were unsure."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", pp. 2–4.
Shortly after Roszko drove off, three RCMP officers arrived, including Constable Peter Schiemann. The bailiffs had the legal authority to search the farm for the truck, since they were unsure if the truck Roszko was using was the one they were to reposess. Acting under that authority, the bailiffs broke open the gate, and the Mounties confined the dogs in a shed. The group then went to the quonset hut in the farmyard, where they found numerous vehicle parts, indicating a stolen vehicle chop shop, and a marijuana grow-op. The Mounties realised that they would need a search warrant before proceeding any further. They left the quonset at approximately 4:15pm and called in the truck as stolen, warning that other officers should be on the lookout for Roszko.
Property search The senior officer in the group, Corporal James Martin, left to obtain a warrant, leaving two officers to maintain control of the farm. Martin returned at 8:40pm with the warrant. Given the expected magnitude of the search, the warrant was valid for 24 hours. The Mounties first conducted a security search of the dwelling and the quonset, to ensure that Roszko was not present."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", pp. 7–8. While their search confirmed he was not on the farm, the RCMP found a radio scanner tuned to the frequency of the Whitecourt RCMP detachment in his residence. They also found lists containing intelligence on the local detachments at Mayerthorpe, Whitecourt, Barrhead and Evansburg, including officers' names, car numbers, and cell phone numbers. There was also a night vision scope and .308 and 9 mm caliber ammunition, which indicated Roszko was in breach of his firearms prohibition."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", p. 6.
Having confirmed that Roszko was not there, the Mounties began searching the quonset. The initial focus was on the search and seizure of the marijuana plants and equipment, conducted by a special Green Team from the RCMP "K" Division in Edmonton. According to documents obtained by the CBC's The Fifth Estate via a court case, police seized seven living and 88 harvested marijuana plants from the residence, plus a further 192 living plants along with growing equipment from the quonset. The marijuana search concluded around 3:00am on March 3, 2005.
All but two Mounties left at that point, with the expectation that an RCMP team specialising in stolen vehicle searches would arrive in the morning. Constables Anthony Gordon and Leo Johnston remained on the scene until the morning, with no signs of any trouble. As a security measure during the night, the Mounties parked several marked police vehicles prominently in the farmyard with their lights on. They also left the vehicle doors and man-door of the quonset wide open, with bright halogen lights on inside. The lights were also left on in the dwelling. The purpose was to make it clear that the Mounties were on the scene and investigating, and to deter unauthorised entry.
Roszko's return After he fled the farm, Roszko phoned Shawn Hennessey, who worked in Barrhead and who subsequently admitted that he was associated with Roszko's grow-op.R v Hennessey, 2009 ABQB 60, para. 14. Roszko wanted to hide his truck on Hennessey's property. Hennessey refused, and contacted his brother-in-law, Dennis Cheeseman, for help dealing with Roszko. Roszko went to Hennessey's farm, and Hennessey and Cheeseman arrived there separately.R v Hennessey (AB QB), paras. 12–15.
Roszko was armed with a Beretta handgun, and asked for a Winchester rifle that he knew Hennessey's grandfather had given him. Hennessey got the rifle, chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum, along with ammunition, and wiped it down. Cheeseman got a pillowcase and some gloves, put on the gloves, then put the rifle in the pillowcase and gave it to Roszko. It was clear to all there that Roszko was enraged at the police.R v Hennessey (AB QB), paras. 15–19. He said he was going to go back to his farm to burn down the quonset, with the evidence of the chop shop and grow-op. He had decided to hide the truck at his aunt's home, and asked Hennessey and Cheeseman to follow him there, then drive him to his own farm. They agreed to do so. His aunt's house was 38.5 km from Roszko's farm.R v Hennessey (AB QB), para. 11.
After parking his truck at his aunt's house, Roszko got into the car driven by Hennessey, who drove him back to the area of Roszko's farm. On the way, Roszko continued to rant about the RCMP, saying he would get even with them. Cheeseman later said Roszko's ranting was "devil talk".R v Hennessey (AB QB), paras. 20–22.
Roszko directed them to drive past the road leading to his own farm and go on to the next one. They could see the lights of the police cars at Roszko's farm. Sometime between 1:00am and 3:00am on March 3, 2005, Hennessey and Cheeseman dropped Roszko off. He pulled heavy socks over his boots, presumably to hide his tracks in the snow. He grabbed the Hennessey rifle and set off towards his farm and the police.
As they were driving away, Cheeseman suggested to Hennessey that they call police. He disagreed, and no call was made.R v Hennessey (AB QB), para. 23.
Shooting On the morning of March 3, 2005, Constables Gordon and Johnston were still providing scene security, pending the arrival of the RCMP Auto Theft investigators. In a telephone report at around 9:00am, Johnston advised Martin that the night had been uneventful. Martin decided to send Constable Myrol to the scene to assist with the auto theft investigators' search. Constable Schiemann was not assigned to work at the scene, but agreed to drop off Myrol. They also agreed to pick up some meat and a sedative to feed and calm down the dogs, who had not been fed since they had been put in the shed the day before. The two drove to the Roszko farm, arriving sometime after 9:30am."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", pp. 8–11.
Just before 10:00am, Constable Garrett Hoogestraat and Constable Stephen Vigor of the RCMP Auto Theft investigation unit arrived. They saw the four Mayerthorpe Mounties at the shed, presumably feeding the meat and sedatives to the Rottweilers. As Hoogestraat and Vigor prepared for the search, the four Mayerthorpe Mounties went towards the quonset. The doors to the quonset were still open, as they had been all night.
Unknown to the Mounties, Roszko was inside the quonset. The subsequent Fatalities Inquiry could not determine when he had returned, but the judge conducting the inquiry concluded that it was unlikely Roszko had entered the quonset much before daylight as he was dressed to spend the night outdoors. He had probably approached the quonset hiding under a sheet which the Mounties later found in the quonset, along with a pillowcase and workgloves. The sheet would have masked him against the snow, and the socks over his boots would have muffled his steps."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", p. 12.
The four Mayerthorpe Mounties entered the quonset. Outside the quonset, Hoogestraat and Vigor heard two loud bangs, followed by several sounds they recognized as gunfire. They also heard screaming from within the quonset. Hoogestraat ran to the radio to report "officers down". Vigor started to the entrance of the quonset, when Roszko came out. He had a hunting rifle slung on his back, a pistol in his belt, and an HK91 semi-automatic rifle in his hands, and was seemingly relaxed. He then saw Vigor and stopped, apparently surprised that there were more Mounties outside. He quickly recovered and fired two shots at Vigor, who took shelter behind a police vehicle and returned fire with two shots from his sidearm. Both of his shots hit Roszko, who staggered back into the quonset.
Hoogestraat was unable to make radio contact with the officers in the quonset. The RCMP Emergency Response Team was called by 10:13am and arrived by 11:52am from Edmonton, which is normally an hour away from Mayerthorpe. An armoured vehicle from the Edmonton Garrison of the Canadian Forces was called in, but subsequently stood down as not needed."Public Fatality Inquiry Report", p. 21. The Emergency Response Team sent in a Remote Mobile Investigator, a robot with a video camera attached, and determined that all four officers and Roszko were dead.
The Fatalities Inquiry later determined that Roszko killed all four officers, who died almost instantly. Only Johnston was able to return fire with one shot. Roszko was then wounded in the hand and thigh by the shots fired by Vigor outside the quonset. The shot to his thigh fractured his femur. After he went back into the quonset, he turned his weapon on himself, and fatally shot himself in the chest, with the bullet entering near his heart.
Roszko fired a total of 19 shots during the shootout, all of which were from the HK91 rifle. Johnston was shot four times, Schiemann three times, and Myrol and Gordon two times each.
Victims The police officers killed in the Mayerthorpe tragedy are referred to as "The Fallen Four".The Fallen Four Memorial Society. Constables Johnston, Myrol, and Schiemann were based out of the Mayerthorpe RCMP detachment, while Constable Gordon was based out of the Whitecourt RCMP detachment.
Anthony Gordon Constable Anthony Gordon, who was born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Red Deer, Alberta, had become a police officer in October 2002. He was stationed in Whitecourt, west of Mayerthorpe, where he was assigned to general policing and highway patrol. Gordon was 28 at the time of his death.
Leo Johnston Constable Lionide "Leo" Johnston had become a member of the RCMP in 2001. From Owl River, Alberta, he began his career in nearby Lac La Biche, Alberta before being transferred to Mayerthorpe. Johnston was 32 at the time of his death. He had married his wife, Kelly, on November 13, 2004.
Brock Myrol Constable Brock Myrol was born in Outlook, Saskatchewan and raised in Red Deer. He had just graduated from the RCMP Academy, Depot Division and had been an officer with the Mayerthorpe RCMP for less than three weeks at the time of the tragedy. Myrol was 29 at the time of his death.
Peter Schiemann