ERT improvements made, inquest told

Changes have been made to the way emergency response teams are trained and equipped in the nearly five years since a man was shot to death in a standoff with RCMP at a remote cabin south of Valemount, a coroner’s inquest was told Tuesday.

John Robert Buehler, 51, was killed during the evening of Sept. 17, 2014, while his daughter, Shanna, was seriously wounded during a confrontation with RCMP after the two began squatting in a trapper’s cabin near Kinbasket Lake about 60 kilometres south of Valemount.

Among the changes, ERT members now train for 40 hours per month, up from two days per month at the time of Buehler’s death, Staff Sgt. Jamie McGowan, the RCMP’s ERT national coordinator, told the inquest via a video feed to the Prince George courthouse from Ottawa.

He also said the RCMP is working towards making ERTs a fulltime occupation.

However, as far as he knows, McGowan said just two of the North District RCMP’s ERT are full-time while the rest are assigned to other duties when not training or on an ERT assignment.

Continuing the push to make positions on all ERTs full-time would deliver the “greatest benefit,” McGowan said, when asked for suggestions on recommendations the inquest jury could make to prevent similar deaths in the future.

“Having them split two different duties, where they may be a general duty patrol officer one minute or a drug section member, and have to (change their) role I think is not doing a service to our members or for the public just because we can’t spend enough time on the training the skills,” McGowan said.

In terms of equipment, McGowan said so-called bean bag guns, which were used against Buehler but ineffective, have been replaced with ones that fire 40 mm impact munitions and have been used to “successfully resolve situations that could have resulted in lethal force otherwise.”

RCMP have also awarded a contract to supply higher-quality night vision goggles. The version the ERT assigned to deal with Buehler were problematic, the inquest was told in earlier testimony, because they created a tunnel vision effect.

In addition to them, McGowan said he would like to see thermal imaging devices more widespread and noted the use of drones has been on the rise. Trouble getting a view of the cabin where the Buehlers had holed up was a theme during testimony at the inquest.

Asked about the extent ERTs are trained to deal with situations in rural settings versus urban ones, McGowan said a section of the eight-week course new trainees go through focuses on rural options but noted most ERTs are based in urban areas.

On whether a similar program is in place to develop negotiating skills, McGowan said ERT members take an online course on deescalation. He also noted that negotiators are taken to the scene via an armoured vehicle.

North District RCMP’s armoured vehicle was not deployed to the site because of the condition of the forest service road leading to the cabin combined with the fact it weighs 12 tons and is primarily an urban vehicle, the inquest heard in earlier testimony.

After receiving initial treatment for her wounds, Shanna Buehler was taken out of the scene on the back of a pickup truck because the road was too rough for an ambulance.

Using a helicopter to evacuate her was out of the question, particularly at night, because turbulence from the nearby mountains made flying hazardous, the inquest also heard.

With his daughter and a pack of German shepherd dogs in tow, Buehler had taken over the cabin and refused to leave when confronted by its owner. A man with a history of violence and mental health issues, Buehler came to see himself as a preacher from God and had began to stockpile belongings, including guns and ammunition, in preparation for a looming doomsday.

McGowan was the last of 28 witnesses to testify over the course of eight days. A six-person jury began deliberations late Tuesday morning on what recommendations could be made to prevent similar deaths in the future.