RCMP charge Okotoks homeowner after shots fired during confrontation

RCMP have charged an Okotoks homeowner and an alleged trespasser for an incident over the weekend in which police say shots were fired when the homeowner confronted two people rummaging through his vehicles.

Edouard Maurice, the homeowner, is facing three charges of aggravated assault, pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm. He was released from custody following a hearing and is scheduled to appear in Okotoks provincial court on March 9.

Ryan Watson was charged with trespassing by night, mischief to property, theft under $5,000 from a motor vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and failure to comply with probation. He appeared in court in Calgary on Monday.

Watson had been taken to hospital with an injury to his arm following the incident. He was discharged from hospital on Sunday before being taken into police custody.

RCMP say members from the Okotoks detachment were called to the property at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday following a confrontation between Maurice and two alleged trespassers, including Watson. An unknown number of shots were fired before the suspects fled. However, police have not said whether it was the homeowner or the intruders who fired the shots.

RCMP have not yet been able to identify a second trespassing suspect and are seeking the public’s assistance.

RCMP Cpl. Laurel Scott said rural property crime is an issue that continues to be on the force’s radar.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about rural property crime given the recent court case in Saskatchewan,” Scott said, referencing the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the killing of 22-year-old Indigenous man Colten Boushie.

“It would be obvious that if you’re living in a rural location the RCMP response is a little bit slower than a municipal city ’s response, and every property owner knows how far away their detachment of jurisdiction is,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that the RCMP supports property owners … taking matters into their own hands.

“I understand that property owners may want to protect their property, but there are limits to what people can do to protect their property. We will consistently encourage people to call the RCMP, let us do the investigation, let us manage the situation.”

Alberta rural RCMP detachments have seen a 16-per-cent increase in Criminal Code offences over the past five years, according to Scott.

“It’s been in a direct relation to the timing of our economy taking a tight turn,” said Al Kemmere, president of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties and a councillor for Mountain View County.

He said property owners have felt the brunt of the increased crime.

“It seems to be a group of very similar people that keep creating the same rural property crimes,” Kemmere said. “To me, that points to more of a system problem where we don’t have a system that puts punitive measures in place quick enough to pull these people off the streets or long enough to keep them off the streets.

“I’m not so sure that our judicial system sees property crimes as important as it is to the people on our landscape. That’s maybe one of the big differences.”

He said there’s a need for stronger financial support of the RCMP, so that it has more resources to prevent these types of incidents.

Earlier this month, the RCMP signed a memorandum of understanding with Rural Crime Watch, a program established to reduce crime in rural areas. Scott said the partnership will help get more eyes on the road as it attempts to curb the problem.

RCMP response times in rural areas can often take upwards of 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the location of the nearest detachment, an issue that may lead people to think they need to take matters into their own hands to defend their property.

“The people who are being affected, often it’s their whole livelihood that’s being affected by this,” Kemmere said. “People get pretty defensive on those types of things, and sometimes they do take issues into their own hands. I worry about people taking things into their own hands and then them being the ones in the end who get more harm than they could ever benefit out of.”

He said those who try to solve the problem themselves, through use of force or weapons, are usually putting their own lives in further danger.

“Unfortunately, it’s that experience that creates some of these very tenuous times that do take place,” he said.

“If anybody looks at the property that they’ve got and can envision somebody just walking in and picking up and walking away with it, I think every person would find that an unfair process.”

There’s been a lot of discussion about rural property crime given the recent court case in Saskatchewan.