Weapons seized from Gregson's house: documents

The inactive RCMP officer accused of murdering an Ottawa police officer had a long record of erratic behaviour with the national police force while he was posted in Saskatchewan, according to court records obtained by CBC News.

Kevin Gregson, who made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Ottawa for the Dec. 29 fatal stabbing of Const. Eric Czapnik outside Ottawa Hospital's Civic Campus, often came under the scrutiny of his supervisors during his stint at a 10-person detachment in Humboldt.

The court records suggest Gregson was so unstable that a warrant was obtained by RCMP to remove the firearms and ammunition from Gregson's home. The warrant was part of proceedings leading up to him being ordered to go on inactive duty until he was mentally fit to continue with the RCMP.

Gregson had lesions removed from his brain after being charged with threatening a Mormon bishop in 2006, a crime for which he received a conditional discharge in 2007. As part of his probation order, he was told to "attend all his medical appointments and attend such counseling as may be recommended."

In a three-page letter from the RCMP informing him of his original removal in January 2005, Sgt. Rhonda Harlos said Gregson:

• Displayed paranoid behaviour that other officers were out to get him.
• Had fits of anger.
• Warned fellow officers that he wouldn't be able to control his reactions in a dispute with his wife and in his failure to get an RCMP transfer.

The letter also states that in one discussion with a class for those who had been caught driving impaired, Gregson said he enjoyed his previous employment in a psychiatric ward because he could be physical with the patients and no one would believe what they said because they were handicapped.

"You continued on," wrote Harlos, "stating that you liked to deal with intoxicated persons because you could get physical… When I discussed this with you, you thought it was funny."

Gregson had other problems — crashing police cruisers, not writing reports, sending inappropriate emails to the entire division and ignoring orders to attend meetings or to answer calls from the RCMP, the court records show.

Seized weapons were later returned

The issues came to a head on Jan. 12, 2005, when six officers arrived at his Humboldt apartment to remove his badge and firearms. He was told he had been placed on inactive status while he sought psychological help.

In an eventual court case about the weapons seizure, Gregson convinced the judge that he was never violent and that he just said stupid things. As a result, the weapons — two rifles, two shotguns, and a bow and arrow — were returned to him.

'He certainly wasn't a bad guy. At the time, he needed medical attention, and he needed more than he really got.' —Wayne Warkentin, whose wife worked with Kevin Gregson

But this didn't change the internal disciplinary action being carried out by the RCMP. After medical and psychological assessments, Gregson was assigned to administrative duty for at least five years, and barred from wearing the RCMP uniform, carrying a weapon or driving a marked car, according to the court order. He was ordered to be in contact with a psychiatrist at least twice a week — although it is not clear whether Gregson lived up to that stipulation.

"I think it's a tragedy what's happened," Wayne Warkentin, a retired pharmacist in Humboldt whose wife worked with Gregson at the RCMP detachment in 2004, told CBC News. "He certainly wasn't a bad guy. At the time, he needed medical attention, and he needed more than he really got."

Warkentin cited Gregson's collapse at a hospital after he was transferred to Regina.

"He was on the operating room table within a half-hour of collapsing," Warkentin said. "That indicates to me things were not right."

Brain lesions cited in threat case

Previous reports said Gregson had lesions removed from his brain. That medical attention was cited by his lawyer as mitigating circumstances during his 2007 court case where he was convicted of threatening a Mormon bishop with a knife.

Gregson was an elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints after successfully completing missionary work in 2000, but had his "Temple Recommend" status revoked for having a sexual relationship outside his marriage. In May 2006, when he approached Bishop Robert Howie to regain his status, he placed a knife on Howie's desk and told the bishop "he had special forces training, reserved for an exclusive few, on how to kill people," according to the court documents.

After the case, in which he pleaded guilty to uttering a death threat and had three other charges dropped, he was suspended without pay and the RCMP moved to fire him. That process is still incomplete.

The initial psychological assessments in 2005 state: "His medical condition has been entrenched for some time. It is deemed highly resistant to treatment."

Warkentin, however, thinks the key to his behaviour were the growths on his brain.

"Obviously it got worse, or it came back, and what we have is a tragedy — for the Ottawa police officer, for him, and his parents."