CBC News: the fifth estate - A Hail of Bullets

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Aired December 7,
2005 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

WATCH the fifth estate ONLINE

Watch this story online.

REPORTER: Linden MacIntyre
DIRECTOR: Cynthia Banks

PHOTOS OF THE CRIME SCENE

See photos which suggest that the events of March 2/3 may differ from the official RCMP story.

DOCUMENTS UNLOCKED

the fifth estate won a court decision allowing the search warrants about the Roszko case to be made public. See some of the documents.

A HAIL OF BULLETS

James Roszko was known to be a violent man.

It was the RCMP's darkest day in more than a century. How did it happen? How could a lone gunman, James Roszko, shoot and kill four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers before turning his rifle on himself?

Twenty-four hours after the tragic shootings on Roszko's farm -- with the image of dead Mounties lying in the snow forever seared into the national psyche -- the fifth estate set out to answer that question.

UNCOVERING NEW INFORMATION

Linden MacIntyre's report points out discrepancies in the official RCMP version of the events of March 3, 2005 and reveals troubling information about how Roszko was policed in the years prior to the tragedy.

The RCMP stated almost immediately that all four Mounties were shot by James Roszko inside his Quonset. the fifth estate story suggests there was a furious gunfight outside. See the photos.

Shortly after the shootings, the fifth estate discovered the RCMP had sealed five search warrants related to their ongoing investigations. the fifth estate went to court and won the release of the search warrants.

Dale Mindus and his family had been harassed by James Roszko for years - the police refused to intervene.

The warrant material provides Canadians with a window into Roszko's actions from the moment he fled his farm on the afternoon of March 2 to the moment he returned the following morning and shot the four officers.

During that time, Roszko called his mother, told her he'd made a will and asked her to pray for him.

JAMES ROSZKO'S PAST

In 1998, the RCMP also failed to aggressively investigate the sudden and mysterious death of Dale Mindus, who James Roszko had violently harassed for years. the fifth estate raises disturbing questions about this death.

the fifth estate also takes a hard look at how an increasingly brazen and wily Roszko fended off charges of sexual assault against young boys. In 1993, the RCMP pulled then-Constable Mike Statnyk off a sexual assault case against James Roszko after the farmer sued the Mountie. The sexual assault case against Roszko was later dismissed and the civil suit dropped.

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