‘A sense of numbness:’ Wolseley still coming to terms with tragic incident involving RCMP officer

A lot has changed in the town of Wolseley within the last 24 hours.

Saturday, the downtown core was turned into a police scene, with investigations ongoing by police members following a tragic death involving a local RCMP member. Just 24 hours later, everything has been cleaned up, according to Mayor Gerald Hill.

But those within the community of under 900 — 100 km east of Regina — are still in shock.

“You really wouldn’t know anything happened,” said Hill Sunday morning.

“There’s a sense of numbness. Still, unbelievability.”

The RCMP member, identified as 26-year-old Constable Shelby Patton, was responding to a call in the community around 8 a.m.

The suspects were driving a stolen truck with Manitoba plates. Patton tried to stop the truck but was killed after he left his vehicle and the driver struck him.

“Sadly, Constable Patton died at the scene,” Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said Saturday.

Patton had spent six years and four months of his RCMP service in the community of Indian Head, working at its detachment after spending time on Parliament Hill in February and March of 2015.

The loss of Patton has been tough on not just the community at large, but also those working in the emergency response field.

Doug Lapchuk is the president of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Fire Fighters Association and he’s the Deputy Chief of the Balgonie Fire Department.

He’s been in volunteer service all his life, and said this loss has been difficult.

“It causes you to take a second and have a bit of a pause. Realize the fact that we’re all in the same area, looking for the same goal: we’re trying to protect the public,” he said. “It’s service before self. The loss of a member in a tragic situation, such as that, drives that home.”

Indian Head’s RCMP Detachment has lowered its flag to half-mast following the death of an RCMP member on Saturday. Pictured Sunday, June 13, 2021. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)

Flags at every RCMP detachment across Saskatchewan will remain at half-mast until sunset on the day of Patton’s funeral. The details of the service will be released in the next few days, according to RCMP.

Lapchuk spoke more of the realities of working in the field, and the uncertainty of each and every day.

“Risks are different in different roles … but we’re all faced with the same risks; it could change your life. You walk out the door, you’re never really sure if you’re going to come home, no matter what emergency service you’re in.

“The RCMP, as a unit, they’re a great police force. Individually, they’re great people. Because, again, we’re all of the same idea, we’re all looking to drive the bus to the same destination — the public is protected and we get to come home at the end of the day …

“We are all family.”

In the incident Saturday, the two suspects were found and arrested in a field northeast of Francis. One man and one woman remain in police custody.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Logan Stein and Dom Lucyk