Mayerthorpe fatality inquiry set to begin

It has been a long road for the families of four RCMP officers murdered by James Roszko on a farm near Mayerthorpe in March 2005.

But after nearly six years of court proceedings, memorials, reports, investigations, and extensive media coverage ­- including several books and a movie – the case may finally be entering its last public chapter, with a fatality inquiry beginning on Monday.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Colleen Myrol, whose son, Const. Brock Myrol, was one of the officers killed in the Mayerthorpe shootings. “It’s going to be six years in March, so we’re going to be glad it’s over with. As you know, the media has been following this very closely and it sort of feels like you keep reliving the tragedy.”

The slaying of Constables Myrol, Peter Schiemann, Leo Johnston and Anthony Gordon on March 3, 2005, was the largest police fatality in RCMP history, and has become one of the country’s highest profile murder cases.

Roszko died at the scene, committing suicide after he was shot by another police officer. Two other men, Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, were charged in the case and are currently serving prison terms for manslaughter.

The fatality inquiry is expected to last until Feb. 4, and will examine what happened and recommend ways to prevent similar deaths in the future. As is always the case with fatality inquiries, the recommendations are not binding and do not assign blame.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Taniguchi said the proceedings will be emotional for many of the officers being called to testify.

“We welcome an independent review of this incident, and we also welcome the fact that it gives us the opportunity to describe our actions in this case and what occurred that day,” he said.

Days before the inquiry is set to begin, Peter Schiemann’s father, Rev. Don Schiemann, said he hadn’t given a lot of thought to the inquiry so far, and doesn’t want to speculate on what will be accomplished with the proceedings.

“I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I’ve not been to one of these before, so I’m just waiting to see what unfolds.”

Schiemann said he will be glad when inquiry is done.

“It’s been a long time,” he said.

Myrol said she is interested in finding out what changes the RCMP has made to its procedures, and whether there is proper funding in place for those changes.

The victims’ families have standing at the inquiry, which will allow them to question witnesses. Hennessey and Cheeseman also sought to take part in the hearing, but were denied standing by Assistant Chief Provincial Court Judge D.R. Pahl.

Myrol said she won’t be attending every day of the inquiry, as she knows some of the evidence will be too hard to hear again.

“Is it going to be horrible and bring everything up? Yeah,” she said. “But when you are burying your son, everything else you just walk through.”