WATCH ABOVE: While Alberta leads the way when it comes to officer-related shooting deaths in western Canada, as Eric Szeto found out, the numbers are on the decline.
CALGARY — An Alberta RCMP official says the Mounties will do their own review of their interactions with the man who shot two officers.
Assistant Commissioner Marlin Degrand says the force wants to know if there’s anything it could have done to help keep Shawn Rehn off the streets.
Degrand says the review will start with Rehn’s earliest dealings with police.
“We’re very concerned about the fact that an individual with his criminal history came into contact with our officers,” Degrand said Wednesday at an RCMP news conference.
“And we are actually … undertaking to unpack all of our interactions with this individual to see if there’s anything … that we could have done that could have helped to avoid him continue on this career path of being a criminal from his early days … up to and including the most recent interactions that our officers would have had with this individual.”
Alberta’s justice minister on Wednesday also ordered a review into how the Crown handled the career criminal. Jonathan Denis said the review will be done in addition to any fatality inquiry that may be called.
READ MORE: MacKay rejects calls for review of police, justice systems after Alberta RCMP shooting
Rehn had a lengthy criminal history and was facing dozens of charges when he shot the officers at a casino in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, on Saturday.
Rehn, 34, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a rural home not far from the casino.
Const. David Wynn, 42, died in hospital Wednesday from a head wound. He never regained consciousness after he was shot.
Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond, 49, faces a long recovery at home after being shot in the arm and torso.
WATCH: Extended video of Assistant Commissioner Marlin Degrand speaking about the loss of RCMP Constable David Wynn
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson, commenting on the shooting on Sunday, was one of the first to question why Rehn was still on the streets. He said he had never seen such a complex criminal record.
Rehn, 34, was found dead of an apparent suicide in a rural home not far from the casino.
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Denis called the shooting “tragic, unfortunate and needless.”
“The pain caused by this tragedy to the officers, their families and colleagues and the community as a whole is nothing short of profound,” he said.
WATCH: Tuesday night, hundreds of St. Albert residents came together to support the families of both officers
“The multiple agencies that are involved are asking a question: Could this incident have been prevented? That’s a question that I ask as well.
“I think at times like this, it is important to act on the facts, and that is why I have directed the review of the Crown’s actions.”
A similar review was ordered when James Roszko gunned down four Mounties in Mayerthorpe almost 10 years ago.
READ MORE: St. Albert RCMP shooting highlights dangers faced by first responders
Documents show Rehn was a violent criminal, in and out of jail, for assaults, break-ins and drug use that stretched back to his teenage years.
“You are a dangerous person who has demonstrated blatant disregard toward the criminal justice system as well as lack of respect to the public in general,” the Parole Board of Canada said when it denied Rehn day parole in 2006.
“Your crimes are continuous and increasing in seriousness and often resulted in serious psychological, emotional and financial harm to victims.”
Six years later, before Rehn left jail on statutory release on different charges, the board said that his “reintegration potential is assessed as low.”
He was rearrested in July 2013 with a fellow parolee who had convictions for armed robbery. Police searched Rehn’s car and found a crack pipe, pellet pistol and knives.
The parole board rebuked Rehn for ignoring bans on having firearms.
Rehn adult criminal record, made public this week by Alberta Justice, details a lengthy list of 57 convictions, starting in April 1999 when he was ordered jailed for two months for theft and break and enter.
In the years that followed, when Rehn wasn’t serving time, he was racking up convictions in Edmonton, Calgary and the smaller communities of Evansburg and Drumheller.
There was assault, assault with a weapon, drug possession and possession of prohibited firearms. He obstructed a peace officer, escaped lawful custody and drove while disqualified.
There was breaking and entering, theft and possession of stolen property.
Parole board documents show Rehn served two federal jail terms as an adult.
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