Ridge Meadows Police officer killed on duty

Update: Nicholas Bellemare, 25, of Coquitlam charged with first degree murder

No known criminal record and a publication ban is already in effect.

Dwayne McDonald, the Commanding Officer of the BC RCMP is reporting that "It is with a deep and profound sadness that I must advise the public of the on-duty death of an RCMP Ridge Meadows member Cst. Rick (Frederick) O’Brien early today. This is an extremely difficult and tragic day for the members of the Ridge Meadows Detachment, Coquitlam RCMP where the incident occurred, and the greater BC RCMP and RCMP family. With respect to what happened, there are a few details we can provide, mindful there are two active investigations underway."

"I can confirm that at approximately 10:00 am Ridge Meadows RCMP were executing a search warrant on a residence near the intersection of Pine Tree Way and Glen Drive in Coquitlam, B.C. While there, the attending officers became engaged in an altercation with a man which resulted in multiple officers being injured - including our member and the suspect being shot. Emergency Health Services transported all injured to hospital, but our officer did succumb to his injuries at scene. The injured male suspect is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries."

"The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO BC) is now investigating the incident as it relates to police actions. A concurrent investigation into the homicide of Cst. O’Brien and the injuries to our two other members is also underway and will be conducted by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT)."

I don't know what happened so I can't really comment other than offer my condolences. He looks completely genuine and totally sincere. O'Brien is of course and Irish name. Clinton Jaws posted a video about it. I'm going to try and balance the extremes.

I'm my interview with Tamara Lich I mentioned how for the most part police have a bad rep. Everyone likes fireman and soldiers because they risk their lives for others but not everyone likes cops even though for the most part they do the same. If someone is trying to kill you, the police risk their lives and rush right in to help you. That is noble but not all cops are noble. There is good and bad in every organization. Rick O’Brien looks like he was a good cop and a good person.

Dwayne McDonald was the Surrey Police chief before he became the commanding Officer for BC. We had high hopes for him when he came because he had done such a great job on that joint task force busting David Giles and the stolen car ring in Kelowna. We were kind of disappointed when he came to Surrey because he kind of turned into a limp fish. Turns out he was a company man that did what the company wanted. The problem with a company man is when the company becomes corrupt so does the company man.

IHIT was an inherit disaster of police misconduct. Yet Rick O'Brien was not involved with any of that. Like many other idealistic recruits he aspired to something higher.

There's been a couple of highly suspicious mass shootings in Canada. One in Nova Scotia, the other in Sanaach. I remember another one locally where an Alberta man stole a mustang from a dealership on Metro Vancouver and shot a cop with a long gun. I thought that was very strange. We often have gang related shootings in Vancouver but they don't normally shoot at the cops. They usually just shoot at each other.

We did have one incident after a gang shooting at the Vancouver airport. Police gave chase and the suspects shot at the police. With illegal guns I might ad that were never registered or lawfully obtained. Yet that was a new turn for local hitmen. Makes ya wonder just how closely involved the intelligence community is with local gang violence. They go after rivals just like the gangs do.

Domestic violence situations are always volatile. There was a border agent who shot his ex with his service revolver then killed himself over in Prince Rupert. That kind of thing is always messed up. There is no justification for it. Yet it does happen.