Const. David Wynn honoured at RCMP commemoration in Regina
Memorial service at RCMP academy remembers officer fatally shot near Edmonton in January
It was a bright, breezy, somewhat cool day at the RCMP parade grounds in Regina, where two former constables were memorialized after they died in the line of duty at the police force's annual National Memorial Service.
Const. David Wynn died on Jan. 21 after being shot by a suspect while attempting to arrest him at a casino in St. Albert, Alta, outside of Edmonton.
With the day's sombre ceremony, Wynn's story comes full-circle: he will be laid to rest on the very grounds where he received his training.
Wynn's widow said in a post online that her husband wanted to be laid to rest at RCMP Depot Division in Regina.
The service is held on the second Sunday of September each year. It honours RCMP members, special constables, auxiliary constables and civilian members who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
RCMP assistant commissioner Joe Oliver was among three dignitaries who laid a wreath at the foot of a cenotaph honouring all 236 police officers who have died while in the line of duty since the force's creation in 1873.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson and Saskachewan's Lt.-Gov. Vaughan Solomon Schofield also laid a wreath at the cenotaph's foot, a stone memorial flanked on both sides by white, vintage canons.
Oliver's son, Adrian Oliver, died on Nov. 13, 2012 while pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle in Surrey, British Columbia.
"For us, getting together as a family, to respect and honour those we have lost in the line of duty is important and special. It's important that we support each other as families as well," Oliver said. "It's a long journey for all of us."
The day's ceremony helped him and his family with the grieving process, he said. It was also a time of reflection for him: "I look back and I reflect on the number close calls I've had, and the impact that would have had on [my wife] and the boys."
The father reflected on how the RCMP grounds in Regina are the same spot where he handed graduation badges to his sons, Adrian and Benjamin.
Commemorating Oliver's and Wynn's deaths at such a spot is poignant for him, he said.
"In some ways, we're celebrating the service that was given to Canada."
Wynn's, Hawkins' and Adrian Oliver's names are now inscribed on the memorial cenotaph, located on the parade grounds' west side.
Const. George Hawkins died in Brandon, Man. in 1968. He died from encephalitis — which can cause brain inflammation and sometimes seizures — after sustaining a tick bite while tracking down a suspect in the Turtle mountains area, in southwest Manitoba.
