(Canadian OH&S News) — An RCMP officer has died four days after he was shot at a casino in Alberta.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 34-year-old Shawn Rehn shot and wounded two uniformed officers inside the casino in southeast St. Albert. An Alberta RCMP spokesperson said that 42-year-old Const. David Wynn, who joined the RCMP in 2009, had remained in grave condition for four days, but never regained consciousness and passed away in an Edmonton hospital on Jan. 21.
Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond, 49, who has worked with the RCMP in a volunteer capacity since 2008, was in serious but stable condition for a short time, but was released from hospital later in the evening. He will require ongoing medical care, the Alberta RCMP added in a media statement.
The spokesperson said that Rehn, who was from the greater Edmonton area and known to police, was found dead in an unoccupied private residence in a rural area east of St. Albert, where it appeared that the residence had been broken into and an alarm had been set off. Police tracked Rehn to the residence earlier in the day and contained the scene prior to attempting an arrest. However, when officers entered the residence, he was found dead. An autopsy was scheduled for Jan. 19.
“I can tell you that Shawn Rehn was known to police and had a long, extensive criminal record that included acts of violence,” RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson added in the statement.
But the RCMP noted that “at no time during police efforts to arrest the suspect at this residence did officers speak with the suspect or fire their weapons. However, this incident is considered an in-custody death, because police had established containment of the scene where the suspect was found deceased.”
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has initiated an independent review of the circumstances of Rehn’s death.
A press release from the Nova Scotia Premier’s Office said that Const. Wynn had been shot while confronting a suspected car thief. Reportedly among the first responders to the Swissair Flight 111 airplane crash in 1998, Const. Wynn had also worked as a paramedic in Bridgewater, N.S. for years.
