Mountie surprised Roszko, inquiry hears

The officer who came face to face with James Roszko moments after the shooting of four other RCMP members told a fatality inquiry on Friday that Rozsko seemed surprised to see another officer at the scene.

But retired Corp. Stephen Vigor said Roszko recovered quickly, and fired two shots at him with an assault rifle. Vigor gave the testimony during the fifth day of a fatality inquiry into the shootings of Constables Anthony Gordon, Peter Schiemann, Brock Myrol and Leo Johnston near Mayerthorpe on March 3, 2005.

At the time of the shootings, Vigor was a constable with the RCMP’s auto theft unit, and head of the specialized Emergency Response Team. Roszko’s shots hit a police car beside Vigor, and Vigor then returned fire, shooting twice in Roszko’s direction.

Roszko then stumbled back into the Quonset.

Vigor said he didn’t know at the time whether he had hit Roszko, but learned later he hit him in the leg and hand. Roszko then committed suicide inside the Quonset.

“I’m not proud of the fact I had to kill someone,” Vigor told the media outside court. “But I’m proud of the fact that I stopped him, and stopped him from taking more lives.”

Vigor said he doesn’t believe the RCMP could have done anything different that day, given the information they had at the time. He echoed earlier comments in the courtroom that if he had been one of the officers to enter the Quonset, he, too, would be dead.

He said the situation goes on dozens of times in Alberta every week.

“The only difference was, James Roszko came back with the intent to murder police officers,” he said.

The inquiry wraps up its first week with testimony from another RCMP officer Friday afternoon.