WATCH: Extended raw interview with two witnesses of the St. Albert RCMP shooting
EDMONTON — It was 20 minutes until close at the St. Albert Apex Casino in the early hours of January 17. Rodney and Irene Codner were having a night out and were playing slots. They had just contemplated going home but decided to stay. They were having a good night on the machines.
It’s a decision that will likely haunt them for the rest of their lives.
“I heard a commotion,” said Rodney. “I look up and I see the two officers… they were chasing the guy and the three were charging towards us.”
“One officer tried to grab ahold of the guy from behind… and the guy turned around with a gun and he shot the first officer in the head,” said Rodney, his voice breaking.
“The other officer tried to grab a hold of the guy and they struggled a bit and the guy shot him too. It all happened really quick.”
The two officers: Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond. The shooter was 34-year-old Shawn Maxwell Rehn.
READ MORE: Suspect in St. Albert RCMP shooting dead; wounded officers identified
“We were close enough that I could smell the gun powder,” recalled Rodney. “Me, my wife, the three people – the guy that did the shooting, the two officers – I could reach my hand out and touch either one of the three. That’s how close they were.”
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Rehn took off right after.
“When he looked back to make sure nobody chasing, me and him were eye-balling each other.”
“I was still scared he was going to start shooting us or something like that,” said Rodney.
The couple recalled seeing Wynn on the ground, and Bond sitting upright. Rodney went to help Wynn. He remembers the Mountie was on his stomach, gasping for air, bleeding profusely.
“I didn’t know if he was alive…. I put my hand on his head, tried to stop the bleeding.”
“At one point he stopped breathing,” said Rodney, who remembers being soaked in blood. “I pat him on the back and he started breathing again.”
The couple recalls hearing Const. Bond saying over his radio: “officers down.” They don’t remember how long it was before help arrived.
WATCH: Nancy Carlson speaks to a couple who witnessed the St. Albert RCMP shooting and still can’t get over what happened
Const. Wynn succumbed to his injuries not long after. Auxiliary Const. Bond was shot in the arm and torso. When police found Rehn roughly 10 hours later, he had taken his own life.
READ MORE: ‘We’re saying our goodbyes today’: wife of St. Albert RCMP Const. Wynn
Until now, details about the shooting have been relatively scarce. Police have never explained that witnesses jumped to the officers’ aid.
WATCH: Funeral service for Const. Wynn
More than a month later, the Codners are in their own personal nightmare and can’t help but relive the incident every day. Their doctor says they have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They’re seeing a counsellor now but still feel alone.
“Lack of sleep, headaches, memory loss,” Rodney shared. “Being a victim of crime and having to got through everything – it’s pretty stressful.”
“I don’t like no one behind me. Any commotion behind me I don’t like it,” said Irene.
“I try to avoid large crowds and segregate ourselves.”
The Codners decided to speak to Global News because they don’t want to be silent anymore.
“We just wanted people to know we were there also,” said Rodney. “That it’s very stressful, very hard, being a victim of a crime.”
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