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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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DECEMBER 4, 2014 | Volume 27 No. 144
52 years between shootings in city
DAVE EAGLES/KTW
KAMLOOPS MOUNTIE SHOT Kamloops Cpl. JeanRene Michaud was shot at 2:45 a.m. when he stopped a vehicle at Batchelor and North River drives in Batchelor Heights. Michaud, who formerly served in the Ashcroft detachment, was seriously injured and underwent emergency surgery in Royal Inland Hospital.
TIM PETRUK
STAFF REPORTER
tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
A Kamloops Mountie is in critical, but stable, condition in Royal Inland Hospital after being shot during a traffic stop in Batchelor Heights — and police announced at 4 p.m. yesterday (right at KTW press deadline) that a suspect had been arrested. Cpl. Jean-Rene Michaud, a 40-year-old father of two, was the officer shot. “This is a dynamic investigation,” Kamloops RCMP Supt. Brad Mueller told reporters at a 10 a.m. press conference yesterday. The shooting occurred at 2:45 a.m. yesterday at the corner of Batchelor
Drive and North River Drive when an attempt at a traffic stop led to an exchange of gunfire. The vehicle and its occupants were described by police as “armed and dangerous.” The vehicle was described as a white, 1998, four-door Chrysler Intrepid with B.C. licence plate AF765A attached to it. Mueller said two police vehicles were in the area at the time of the traffic stop, each with one officer inside. “I can say that our officer was fired upon as he approached the suspect vehicle,” Mueller said. “The backup officer returned fire.” See CPL. MICHAUD A4
The spotlight that focuses on a shooting of a police officer is now aimed at Kamloops. Just 182 days after three RCMP officers were shot by Justin Bourque in Moncton — two of them fatally — a Kamloops Mountie is in Royal Inland Hospital in serious condition after being shot during what police say was a traffic stop in Batchelor Heights at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3. It’s been a long time since an officer was shot in Kamloops — 19,161 days, to be exact — when constables Elwood Keck, Donald Weisgerber and Gordon Pedersen responded to a call about a guntoting man heading into Peterson Creek Park. Keck, 25, and Pederson, 23, were on duty on June 18, 1962. Weisgerber, also 23, was not scheduled to work that day, but had dropped into the detachment to do some paperwork before heading out for a round of golf. He went along with his comrades as backup and was with them when they confronted George Booth, who was armed with a rifle and refused to drop it. Booth shot Pedersen twice. Pedersen returned fire, but the third shot was fatal. Keck also shot at Booth, hitting him in the stomach. Booth dropped his rifle, Weisgerber ran to get it, but Booth beat him to it and shot the officer as he ran toward him. Keck, stationed beneath the bridge from where Booth was shooting, took a look out to see if he had a shot. Booth fired, killing him. The incident ended hours later, following a shootout with other officers who converged on the park. The RCMP honour roll of fallen officers in Canada totals 234. It begins with the death of John Nash on March 11, 1876, with the notation he was “accidentally killed while on duty near Fort MacLeod,” in the Northwest Territories. The single-worst day for the Mounties came on March 3, 2005, when four officers were shot and killed in Mayerthorpe, Alta., when they went to a farm to execute a property-seizure order. — Dale Bass
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