Inquiry calls for changes to volunteer constable program
The RCMP should improve radio communications and Alberta should adopt changes to the volunteer constable program, a fatality inquiry into the deaths of a St. Albert Mountie and the man who killed him in 2015 has recommended.
Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond were shot and seriously injured while investigating a call about a stolen pickup truck at a St. Albert casino in January 2015. Wynn was shot in the head and later died in hospital, while Bond was shot in the arm and torso and recovered. Shawn Maxwell Rehn, the shooter, fled to an empty home where he was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. At the time, Rehn was out on bail.
An RCMP report presented at the fatality inquiry found Apex Casino, now Century Casino, is a dead zone for radio communications.
In his recommendations to prevent similar deaths released Thursday, Judge Bruce Garriock said even if the radios were working, the altercation happened too quickly for Wynn to call for backup. But he said the officer who sent Bond into the casino to check on Wynn, which was against RCMP policy, knew radios did not function well inside.
“This, in turn, resulted in Bond performing operational duties outside of his authority as an auxiliary constable,” he wrote.
Garriock recommended Alberta RCMP adopt changes to the auxiliary program put in place in other provinces following Wynn’s death, and that the RCMP improve the radio communications systems. Auxiliary constables are unpaid and unarmed.
The RCMP is currently working on upgrading the communication system, which more than doubles the number of radio towers.
Garriock also cleared Edmonton police officer Const. Wilson Quan who played a key role in granting the shooter bail, despite Rehn having an extensive and violent criminal record.
Rehn’s bail was set at $4,500 with conditions, including a promise to appear in court. He did not attend.
“I concur with the aforesaid submissions ... Quan was an experienced bail officer who acted in accordance with his training and the resources available to him at the time,” Garriock wrote.
Quan believed it was unlikely Rehn would be able to come up with the bail funds in the two weeks before his next court appearance, according to submissions made at the inquiry.
The judge noted Alberta’s bail procedures have changed significantly as a result of Wynn’s death. Crown prosecutors now preside over bail hearings.
Garriock also cleared the RCMP of any wrongdoing in the killer’s self-inflicted death.
“No RCMP member fired a round while at the residence. I concur with the submission ... that there was no evidence of any deficiencies or shortcomings by the RCMP,” he said.
Autopsy results showed Rehn shot himself through his right eye. A medical exam of his wounds showed the gun was pressed against his skin or extremely close to it when it fired. They also found soot and the absence of stippling, which would support this theory.
The investigation also found there were no others present in the room when he was shot, and Rehn had a high level of methamphetamine and cocaine in his system before he died, but the substances did not contribute to his demise.