A ghastly shudder of familiarity rippled through Alberta’s police fraternity Tuesday with news that two RCMP officers had been shot and wounded at a rural residence.

The officers were airlifted to two different Edmonton hospitals and were undergoing surgery for “significant” injuries. Chief Supt. Rick Taylor told a news conference in Killam, a small town 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, that their precise medical conditions weren’t known but they had been hit in the torso.

For many in the province, Tuesday’s shooting evoked painful memories of the awful day in March 2005 when a self-professed cop hater named James Roszko cut down four officers near Mayerthorpe while they were staking out his marijuana grow-op. Roszko then killed himself.

“It’s pretty sombre in there,” Taylor said of the Killam detachment. “A lot of the people that are in there tonight supporting one another are colleagues and friends of these officers. We’re all waiting very patiently and waiting for good word to come back from Edmonton.”

There was promising news ‘ as the officers were being flown by air ambulance to Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra and University hospitals, they were conscious, able to talk and even still doing their jobs, in a way.

“They were able to give some information en route to the hospital,” said Taylor.

Details of what exactly happened were murky on Tuesday night, and the status and even number of suspects in the case was not clear.

Taylor said the officers had gone to a residence about 10 kilometres outside of Killam as part of an ongoing investigation that the small detachment had been looking into for the past week.

“A search warrant was granted for that residence and they attended there this afternoon,” Taylor said.
Darcy Eskra, deputy mayor of Killam, said he was told one of the suspects in the shooting was dead, but Taylor would not confirm that.

Premier Alison Redford was briefed on the case before an afternoon news conference.

“Our hopes and prayers are with their families,” Redford said.