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When diplomacy fails, its up to the ERT team |
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Written by FRANK PEEBLESCitizen staff
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Friday, 04 July 2008 |
RCMP ERT members train Wednesday morning in downtown Prince George. (Citizen photo by Brent Braaten)
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DAWSON CREEKUNITED STATESFRASER LAKELOWER MAINLANDPRINCE GEORGEWILLIAMS LAKE RCMPEMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMNECHAKO RIVERMILE HOUSE
There might be tear gas hissing, the burst of a flash bomb, there could be gunfire, it could be inside the hallways of an office building, in the yards and alleys of a trailer park or suburban neighbourhood, or deep in the bush.
In the United States they are known as the SWAT team, but in spite of overblown Americanna celluloid, they are absolutely real in this country as well, including our own community.
These high-risk police specialists go back 135 years in Canadian history, born the same day as the Mounties themselves. They were known as the North-West Mounted Police back then and today they are known as the RCMP Emergency Response Team. Police members just call them ERT.
The glowering assault rifles and stormtrooper mannerisms may seem out of step for northern B.C., but Mounties here have no uncertainties about the danger that regularly erupts in Prince George and the surrounding area. They act in the most hurtful moments of truth and when they are called upon to pull the trigger it is not to wound, knock a gun out of a hand, or warn a suspect. They shoot to kill if they have to shoot at all, said Prince George RCMP Const. Richard Brown, ERT team leader for the North District's eastern group (there is a western team based in Terrace).
"Our situations are becoming more hostile," he said. "I am referring to specifically in Prince George. By no means am I trying to be a fearmonger, but the public should know what is out there that we have to deal with."
Here are some recent situations local police have dealt with:
-- In January, 2005, Prince George RCMP announced the arrest of 10 suspects, all members or associates of the Renegades Motorcycle Club and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. The operation included the seizure of more than $100,000 cash, 25 pounds of marijuana, 14 kilograms of cocaine, four handguns, one sawed-off shotgun, one fully automatic AK-47 assault rifle, a large assortment of prohibited ammunition and other firearms.
In March Prince George members intercepted a number of guns in the possession of some known local drug dealers. The weapons included a replica (but functional) AK-47 semiautomatic military assault rifle, a .357 magnum revolver, a .380 semiautomatic pistol, and a semiautomatic .45 pistol. Also found in the drug bust was a bulletproof vest.
-- On December 17, police resources in Prince George were thinly stretched when the eastern ERT team was called to a domestic standoff in Dawson Creek only to have an armed standoff develop at the same time in Prince George. The western ERT team stepped in from Terrace to handle the Prince George situation. Then, a domestic dispute elsewhere in the city turned into a stabbing that required several members. Topping it off, extra law enforcement was needed to oversee safety due to the extraordinary Nechako River ice jam in full force at the time.
-- On January 20, Prince George police opened fire on the driver of a stolen vehicle after the suspect led them on a pursuit that ended with the aggressive driver attempting to run officers over while ramming their vehicles. The suspect was wounded in the incident and two Mounties were injured.
-- On June 13, Williams Lake RCMP pulled over a vehicle driven by a known suspect connected to organized crime. Inside the vehicle was a duffel bag containing 29 handguns stolen from a outdoor sporting goods shop in Fort St. John.
-- The most prominent ERT exercise in recent provincial RCMP history took place just west of Prince George on August 20 to 22, 2007 when a person of interest in a police matter at Fraser Lake, allegedly fired a rifle at Mounties approaching his vehicle then fled from them on foot into the bush. The local ERT team led a pursuit of the man that ended at the Stony Creek Reserve near Vanderhoof. The fugitive was said to have taken a hostage temporarily, then later retreated into a wooded area where he hunkered down and exchanged multiple shots at converging ERT team members. There were apparently no injuries to anyone in the entire three-day event. He was taken into custody and the matter is now scheduled for trial this summer on 23 charges.
"That was a rare situation," Brown said. "We don't see that on a regular basis. Usually we have static suspects in a home or in a vehicle. That situation was unique in many senses. He was on the move, he was motivated, we pulled a lot of resources from all over the province to help with that."
Const. Gord Molendyk was one of the leaders of the ultimate ERT incident RCMP have ever faced: Gustafson Lake.
Molendyk, who was raised on a farm and hunted in the backwoods of the Robson Valley was stationed at the Prince George detachment.
The incident involved a small (but not insignificant) and heavily armed group of natives who laid claim to a patch of privately owned land in the rural area near 100 Mile House and dared the Canadian government to remove them from it. It was not long before about 400 Mounties from as far away as Saskatchewan were called to the volatile scene.
Although no one died in the 1995 Gustafson Lake crisis, it is not true that no shots were fired. Molendyk was on the receiving end of some and also dolled out some M-16 bullets in exchange in what could have been the flashpoint of the firefight everyone feared would erupt in the tense, prolonged, standoff that was in the media spotlight.
Thankfully, Molendyk said, he and his partner were OK and the RCMP leadership stayed cool. Had they not, scenes of the fiery, 'FBI versus David Koresh' massacre at Waco, Texas, only two years earlier could have had a similar showing in the B.C. interior.
That pivotal day at Gustafson Lake involved a fairly routine but nonetheless risky patrol close to the natives' well-stocked camp. Molendyk and his usual ERT partner Const. Lorne 'Rocky' Clelland (later promoted to corporal and recently retired) were ambushed from behind as they drove on a remote road behind the besieged natives' lines.
Bullets passed through the body of the suburban they occupied and both men took direct hits. Clelland was struck in the upper back between the shoulder blades. Molendyk was also hit in the upper back but more to the right side; that scorching hot slug then tumbled down his clothing into his belt line where it burned a small patch of flesh.
Both survived only because of their flak jackets, Molendyk said.
Both exited the vehicle and returned fire, although it was purely defensive cover-shooting since neither saw their assailants.
"Without a doubt the incident involving the shooting of the suburban that my partner and I were in was very unnerving, but probably saved lives," Molendyk said in a recent interview. It was the first and only time in his RCMP career he ever fired his weapon at a person, and the only time gunfire was ever aimed at him. He was a nine-year veteran of ERT, plus many other years as a regular member before he retired recently in Vernon, where he is that detachment's media spokesman.
"I don't think we ever thought they were as well fortified as they were," he said. "We had never had a major confrontation with groups like that. It was fully planned that we would just drive into the camp and they would surrender. Now I don't believe that was the case."
Molendyk said that once the event came to its relatively peaceful but controversial end, police made a chilling discovery: weaponry, foxholes, shooting lanes and other fortifications that clearly indicated a capability to inflict sustained and sophisticated gunfire on police had they stormed into the camp.
Brown said that today's ERT member, perhaps with Gustafson Lake in the back of their mind, uses patience as a tool just as important as their high-tech communication systems or their weapons.
"We've sat there for 15 hours talking and waiting for someone barricaded in a house rather than taking 'the easy way out'," said Brown. "There is nothing easy about making the decision to kill someone, and there is nothing easy about living with that afterwards even if you are trained to do it and it was the right thing to do for the safety of others. We would rather spend all that time bringing a peaceful end to things, and that is what almost always happens."
The North District eastern ERT team is called into action an average of 10 times per year, from 100 Mile House to the Yukon border, from Burns Lake to the Alberta line. The Prince George-based team has so far been successful in closing all cases without death or significant injury.
That has everything to do with training, said the Mounties, since every single call-out of the ERT team means somebody is causing a threat of death or great suffering to the public and has to be dealt with using the most decisive containment and interceptive tactics.
"We went into Gustafson Lake and our team didn't even have night vision goggles if you can believe that," Molendyk said. "We were very fortunate that nobody on either side died during that event."
He said the threat of death was pervasive at Gustafson Lake, but it was always a factor when ERT was called out.
Brown said that there are, generally speaking, two main dynamic danger factors ERT members face in their duties.
One is organized crime, which pits all levels of crooks against the police and those suspects come with guns, drugs and big money.
The other is the common domestic dispute, which can often involve drugs and alcohol, and always (if ERT is required to intervene) involves extreme human emotions versus the public's peace and safety.
"Nothing we get to see is typical," said Brown. "It is pretty exciting every time we get called. We tailor our training to what may occur, what probably won't ever happen, but we have to practice the skill because lives may weigh in the balance."
The members of the North District ERT team spend their days doing regular RCMP jobs at various detachments and police units across the region. Only in the Lower Mainland is there a dedicated Emergency Response Team that does exclusively that work.
ERT teams are made up of Mounties who ask to join when there is a posted opening, have the support of their family and the backing of their commanding officer.
There are physical requirements that must be perpetually met; there are considerations for the applicant's mental make-up; shooting ability is important.
If those hurdles are passed, the candidate goes to Ottawa for six weeks of specialized training, and once on the team the training is ongoing: at least three days per month.
Training isn't in a classroom. ERT members run scenario after scenario with all their gear - 50 pounds of it - actually firing their array of weapons at actors and targets. The bullets (checked and re-checked by a dedicated member because past training mistakes elsewhere in Canada have been fatal) are props, but they actually strike with an impact and leave a clear mark.
Police dogs and handlers are often part of the tactical rehearsals as well, since they so often work together.
"Really important to us is the ability to make judgments and quick decisions, and how well the person fits within the team," Brown said. "I and others on the team have been in the position of having to put our safety on the line for the person next to them. It is the team that makes an operation successful."
"The camaraderie on the team was such that literally you could trust the other person with your life, you could put your life in the hands of the one next to you, that is the faith you had in those members," said Molendyk. "It made me more confident in a lot of situations. It kept me sharp as an officer, for the most part. (It fostered) very good camaraderie with the individuals you worked with on a regular basis (not just ERT members). I am still friends with some of my instructors. You bump into ERT members who recognize you still. I don't want to use the word fraternity, but there is a close bond."
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 September 2008 )
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