Dennis Cheeseman and Shawn Hennessey were sentenced yesterday for their role in the senseless murders of Anthony Gordon, Leo Johnston, Brock Myrol, and Peter Schiemann some four years ago. I was surprised, and gratified, to see that the last couple of articles on CBC's website did not have a comment section. In general comments on major news websites make me bleed from my temples, and many of those associated with this story even more so. It his hard to believe how vitrolic and hatefilled some of these are.
For those of you not familiar with the role that these two played, essentially they gave James Roszko a rifle, and drove him to his farm, knowing that he would probably murder the policemen that he found there. That the rifle they gave him wasn't used to kill the four members matters not. Cheeseman and Hennessey then went and got on with their lives as five men lost theirs, and five families were shattered. Is it appropriate that they go to prison? Of course it is.
I've told this story in the past but it serves to illustrate how different an outcome there can be when someone has the moral fortitude to do the right thing.
Just before Christmas, a few years before the murders in Mayerthorpe, a colleague and acquaintance of mine was murdered a mere half hour drive from where I grew up. Dennis Strongquill and his partner, Brian Auger, were heading for a quiet coffee when they pulled over a truck for not dimming its headlights. When the one of the occupant came out shooting at them, Dennis and Brian pulled away to get away from the firing, and incredibly were chased by the culprits. Looking for backup and better weapons they drove right into the Russell RCMP Detachment, where the suspects rammed their truck pinning Dennis inside, a misfunctioning pistol (with the clip useless on the floor) in his hand. One of the suspects walked up and killed him with four shotgun blasts, until they were driven away by Brian's return fire. In the subsequent manhunt and crime spree that followed one of the three suspects was killed, perched on a roof of a hotel with a rifle. The other two were captured and eventually sentenced to prison.
Prior to the incident, some people, who apparently cared about the suspects, had pretty good ideas that their spree would turn out this way. Although it is questionable that they had direct knowledge, such as Cheeseman and Hennessey's, that police would be harmed they certainly had good signs that they would. And yet they lacked the moral fortitude to stop it, supposedly because they cared for the suspects. Had they acted two men, including one of those whose life they cared about, would be alive, and other lives would not have been shattered.
Less than two weeks later I, along with my partner, were responding to a call for help. A young man called to say that he had taken pills in a suicide attempt and called us to help him. It was a trap. The young man actually intended to kill us, he waited for us with two rifles in a barricaded house, to shoot us down simply because we were police officers. Neither of us had had any prior professional dealings with him. So he waited to kill us, and probably planned to kill the others who would eventually arrive to arrest him.
But this time someone intervened. As the young man put his plan into action, he told a friend of what he intended to do. But this time it was someone with the moral courage to realize that what his friend was doing was wrong, that lives would be taken and others changed irrevocably. He realized that although he might be betraying his friend's confidence, that in the circumstances it was the right thing to do, and that lives (including possibly that of his friend) hung in the balance. So he made the call and warned us before we could walk into a death trap.
The young man still shot at me, about a dozen times, but from a far not while I was standing on his step unaware of what awaited me on the other side of a door. Because his friend had the moral fortitude to warn us, lives were probably saved that day. My children got to know their father, Leah could still wake up beside me, not some faded photo of me in Red Serge. My parents and siblings did not have to go through the great grief of a family member murdered.
Pity that Cheeseman and Hennessey did not make that warning call. Because of it five men died, five families were shattered. I hope they reflect on that their entire lives, and not just the next few years as they experience their just desserts.
Comments
4 responses
Wow, I’m speechless. What a thing to find out, that someone had set a trap for you. And not even for you personally, but to punish your profession.
Kudos to all police officers for the dangers you face in order to uphold the law and protect people.
This sounds familiar. I mean here we have millions of such cases when people see a crime but pass by just not to get involved. We had a case last year when a 17yr girl was raped and killed. Two people – a man and a woman – watched the whole thing from their window and did nothing. Not even called police! I hate this trait which is common among Russian citizens like “Don’t ask me I saw nothing I mind my own business” grrr
I was pleased to see their sentence (although not pleased to see the headlines of “harsh sentence! Of course it’s harsh, look at what they did! Sigh…)
I’ve mentioned before about people who can’t seem to separate the person from the uniform and the dangers it poses to officers. Thankfully someone had the presence of mind to warn you and you made it out safely. The luck was on your side that day, and I’m very glad that we never had to see a headline with your name on it.
Thanks Fawn, It happens as much as we wish it didn’t. I was lucky and am thankful for the intervention of someone who knew the plan was wrong.
Hi Alexandra,
It is not just Russia, but luckily there are still many people who do stand up and get involved.
Seeing one of those headlines with my name on it would definitly ruin my day Karyn. I am amazed at how some people can’t see what the two did was wrong, and how five people might be alive today had they only acted.