"Could you take a life in the discharge of your duties?"
That was one of the myriad of questions asked in military boot camp psychological assessment. Your post graduation assignment was based significantly on your response.
Although I've never been involved in a suspect shoot-out, friends have and their response was similar if not identical to the Members involved in the Merritt, British Columbia incident. Similar if not identical to several Members involved in the Nova Scotia's mass shooting.
Photo courtesy of CTV News
No Members were physically injured during the following incident.
"Merritt RCMP were flagged off to a possible stolen sea can near Quilchena that day and found Cooper, 47, pulling the sea can on a trailer with a white Ford F-350. Both the trailer and the truck were stolen, but not from the same place.
His father (Cooper), while under the influence of meth, fired at police on two occasions with an automatic rifle as his 11-year-old son sat in the passenger seat. One can only imagine the shock and fear this child faced as his father shot at police.
Police tried to stop him in the truck near Quilchena around 3:50 p.m. June 6, 2021, but Cooper fled, hitting a fence. An RCMP vehicle narrowly avoided a collision with the Ford truck, evading Cooper with their police cruiser.
Cooper was later spotted by police on Highway 5A while leaving Quilchena, but he led police on a chase until the truck came to a stop at the junction of highways 8 and 97C.
A windshield in one of the RCMP cruisers was also shot out in the process, which police suspect was from one of Cooper's bullets, but it's possible it was shot out by one of the police officers."
"He placed his son directly in harm's way by driving this stolen vehicle high on meth and engaged in a shootout with police while (his son) sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle," Phillips said. "Mr. Cooper's actions on that day can only be described as reckless, defiant and negligent. It is a miracle he and his son survived. It is also a miracle no officer or member of the public was injured given the number of shots fired,"
Attempted murder charges stayed.