Sentencing begins for Winnipeg man who killed Saskatchewan Mountie with stolen truck

Const. Shelby Patton of the RCMP was killed in the line of duty in 2021.

A sentencing hearing begins today for a man who ran over and killed an RCMP officer in Saskatchewan.

Alphonse Stanley Traverse pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter in the death of Const. Shelby Patton.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a motor vehicle.

Patton, who was 26, had pulled over a suspected stolen truck in the town of Wolseley, east of Regina, in 2021.

Court heard the officer asked Traverse to step out of the truck and, when Traverse started the vehicle to drive off, Patton stepped on the running board and reached for the keys.

Patton fell when the truck jerked and was run over by a rear tire.

An agreed statement of facts said Traverse had been on warrant status for various offences.

He and a woman decided to drive from Winnipeg to play VLTs in Saskatchewan, as bars in Manitoba were still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When their truck broke down, they stole another near Pipestone, Man.

Traverse and the woman had also been using crystal meth, said the document.