“We have every single possible resource at our disposal actively involved right now,” RCMP Insp. Gibson Glavin told media. “Our air support, police dog support and emergency response teams and general duty members. Everything we can bring to bear on this to try to end it.”
St. Albert is northeast of Edmonton and the shooting took place outside of a casino near the Sturgeon Valley Golf Course. Thus far RCMP have only said there was an altercation with a civilian the officers approached in relation to a stolen vehicle. They said both their officers have “significant” injuries.
The incident comes on the heels of a report released last week on a tragedy in New Brunswick last June in which a crazed gunman ambushed RCMP officers, killing three and wounding two. The report made 64 recommendations, including issuing carbines, longer range weapons than the shotguns and handguns officers had at their disposal that day.
Further, an incident of this kind recalls the assassination of four officers in Mayerthorpe, Alta.,. in 2005, by a man with violent convictions in his past who hated police; that man turned the gun upon himself.
The assailant in St. Albert is described as a white male between the ages of 25 and 35 and wearing a jacket that was two shades of blue.
