22 Oct 2011 Edmonton Journal Global News With files from Postmedia News
Mounties will get more firepower
Frontline officers will be outfitted with new assault rifles
The Mounties are set to get a massive upgrade to their arsenal next year with the delivery of high-powered assault rifles.
In the wake of deadly firefights in Mayerthorpe, Alta., and another in Spiritwood, Sask., the national police force will arm its front line officers with C-8 patrol carbines — weapons similar to the U.S. military’s M-16. The C-8 is a variant of the rifle used by soldiers in the Canadian Forces
Right now, officers are equipped with pistols and have access to shotguns and rifles, but the C-8 will offer increased accuracy and rate of fire for the sometimes-overwhelmed Mounties.
The RCMP has also ordered 2,000 sets of hard body armour designed to give officers better protection than the Kevlar vests they currently wear.
In 2005, armed with a high-powered hunting rifle, James Roszko confronted police on his farm in the rural Alberta town of Mayerthorpe after the RCMP discovered a marijuana grow-op on his property.
Roszko shot and killed all four officers and then turned the rifle on himself.
Two other men are behind bars for aiding Roszko.
Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman gave Roszko the rifle and drove him to the isolated farm. Cheeseman has about six years left to serve while Hennessey has approximately nine years remaining.
A year later, two officers were killed and a third wounded in Spiritwood after police tracked down Curtis Dagenais on an assault complaint.
The shootout began outside the rural Saskatchewan town when Dagenais stopped the pickup truck he was driving and opened fire. The two officers who died suffered head wounds and died in hospital days later.
Dagenais is currently serving a life sentence, with no chance for parole for about another 23 years.