RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD

Subject: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: flattop
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:04 PM

Lansing Small posted a message to the Cape Breton listserver this morning with the heading, RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD.

Given the pain that American mudcatters are feeling over shootings in their country and because of information contained in Lansing's message I will copy his posting below. I was surprised at the comparitive statistics on police deaths and moved by the number of people this police officer's death will touch.

Canada overall feels like a much safer country yet police deaths on the job are quite high. We have roughly a tenth of the American population. With restrictive gun legistation and without the American culture of violence, I had hoped our numbers would be a lot lower, like maybe 1% of the American numbers. Sadly, they were not.

sincerely, david

Subject: RE: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: flattop
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:05 PM


From: "LansingConcreteGuy"
To:
Subject: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 01:17:44 -0400
Reply-to: [e-mail]

Well here is some sad news....It's not easy to be a policeman today and
balance all we want and don't feel we want from them...A point on the
other side of the fence....

Lansing
____________________________________________________________________

Copyright c 2001 CBC
All Rights Reserved

RCMP officer shot and killed in Nunavut
WebPosted Mon Mar 5 21:33:54 2001
CAPE DORSET, NUNAVUT - An RCMP officer responding to a domestic dispute
in Nunavut was shot and killed on Monday after scuffling with the suspect.


LINKS: Websites related to this story

The Mounties identified the officer as 47-year-old Const. Jurgen Seewald.

"It is with great sadness that the RCMP confirms that one of its members
was shot and fatally wounded this morning," said the RCMP in a news
release.

Seewald, a 26-year veteran of the force, had been stationed in the
hamlet of Cape Dorset since last fall.

He was one of only four RCMP officers who lived in the isolated
community of 1,118 on the southwestern tip of Baffin Island.

RCMP Sgt. Mike Jeffrey said Seewald was alone when he responded to the
call.

"There was an altercation with a suspect. As a result of that
altercation, Const. Seewald was fatally wounded," Jeffrey said.

Seewald was taken to the hamlet's nursing station, where he died from
his wounds a short time later.

Standoff ends peacefully

Jeffrey said 15 Mounties then surrounded the house where the suspect was
barricaded alone inside.

"He's been contained in a residence. We're attempting to ensure that
communication is being done so there's no further injuries," Jeffrey
said. He wouldn't say if the suspect was armed.

Several hours later, the standoff ended when the man surrendered
peacefully.

The shooting affected everyone in the tiny community. Schools,
businesses and public buildings were shut down for the day and residents
were told to stay inside.

The hamlet's radio station was broadcasting appeals to the man to give
himself up.

Flags at the RCMP building in Iqaluit and at the Nunavut legislature
were lowered to half-mast.

The Nunavut legislature ended its session early Monday afternoon after
the territory's leader Paul Okalik issued a statement of condolences to
Seewald's family and friends.

QUICK FACTS
The Officer Down Memorial Page Web site lists 663 Canadian law
enforcement officers as having died in the line of duty.

The listings include all causes of death - from shootings and stabbings,
to vehicular accidents and heart attacks - and go back as far as 1867.

The cause of death that has claimed the most lives is gunfire. Two
hundred and twenty officers have died from gunshot wounds in Canada.

The last officer shot to death while on duty was 49-year-old Pierre
Rondeau, a federal Department of Corrections guard in Montreal.

In September 1997, Rondeau was driving a bus to pick up prisoners
scheduled for hearings at a courthouse in Montreal when it was riddled
with bullets apparently shot by a Quebec biker gang.

Const. Jurgen Seewald is the first to be killed in the line of duty in
2001.

Eight officers died in 2000.

In the U.S., 27 law enforcement officers have died on duty so far in
2001.

Last year, there were 147 fatalities.

Written by CBC News Online staff

Const. Jurgen Seewald
David Michael Lamb reports for CBC Radio


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____________________________________________________________________

Patience is the ability to let your light shine
after your fuse has blown. ouch!

Still I need allot more work on that one...

LansingConcreteGuy at [e-mail]

OR [e-mail]

Subject: RE: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:12 PM

This one really hits home, folks. My heart goes out to his family and friends. They all know what it means to be a Policeman, but no one ever expects it to be "here", whereever "here" is. Especially when here is a small town....

Subject: RE: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 12:25 PM

Yep. It's a dangerous job. Most of the Canadian cops I have met in my life were pretty decent people, and I know they work under a lot of stress. It's like military service, you are on the front line when on duty.

For awhile I was trading emails with a retired American police chief in Pennsylvania. He had bought some model kits from me on Ebay, and we got talking about this and that. He was stationed in a small town, and was the local chief for many years. He said he was lucky in that he never had to shoot anyone, and was only shot at once. He said it's not something you ever want to experience again. The bullet (from a rifle) missed him by inches. The man who fired it was persuaded to surrender a few minutes later. He had lost it for some reason, as people sometimes do...domestic dispute or something. According to my friend, domestic disputes tended to be the most dangerous and unpredictable situations to go into. People can get pretty wild when they're on their home turf.

- LH

Subject: RE: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Mar 01 - 01:00 PM

Thanks, flattop, for posting this. I'd read about it in the paper, but they didn't give the stats. It is very sad and yes, LH, I've heard that, too, about domestic disputes being the most volatile and dangerous.

My heart goes out to his family and the townfolk.

kat

Subject: RE: RCMP Police Officer shot, SAD
From: Banjer
Date: 07 Mar 01 - 05:20 AM

When I served in the US Army Military Police from 1968 to 1970 it was alright to respond to almost anything as a single unit. Usually two or more MP units were assigned to any incident. If you were the first unit to arrive at the Enlisted Men's Club (the EMC) and there was a major brawl going on you could, if you felt brave enough, wade in and start trying to restore order if you so chose. If you assignment was a silent alarm at the post branch of the local bank, feel free to tackle it on your own, backup was probably not far behind. BUT!!!! Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES was it permissible to enter a location where a domestic disturbance was under way until at least two units were on scene! Yes, domestic disturbances are a very high risk because although the (un)happily married couple would love to tear each other limb from limb they will invariably team up against any outside force trying to keep them from their goal. It's a shame that like many other departments the RCMP is so thin spread that they have only four men to patrol a community of 1,118 people.