Saskatchewan Mountie’s family ‘relieved’ after son’s killer sentenced

Tears flowed outside Regina Court of King’s Bench on Thursday after the man who killed Const. Shelby Patton was handed an 18-year prison sentence.

Patton’s parents, Ashley and Melanie, were emotional as they spoke to reporters after Alphonse Traverse was sentenced. In September, Traverse had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the June 2021 killing of the young Mountie.

“I’m relieved that this part is over,” Melanie said. “It’s not quite what we were asking for, but at the same time I think the important thing here to focus on is the safety of the police officers who are out there trying to serve and protect us as a community.

“Our society, if we don’t have these people out there protecting us, what do we have left? I think this kind of helps set the precedence for that.”

Traverse ran over and killed Shelby Patton in a stolen truck after the 26-year-old Mountie conducted a traffic stop in Wolseley on June 12, 2021.

Patton had jumped onto the running board of the truck and reached inside to try to stop Traverse from starting the truck, but Traverse got the truck started and took off.

Patton was able to hang on for a few moments, but fell off and was run over by the truck’s rear wheels.

Traverse and the woman in the truck with him were later arrested about 90 kilometres away, near Francis. Her case is still before the courts.

Traverse initially was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence. The Crown was seeking a life sentence, while the defence countered with a 16-year sentencing submission.

In the end, the associate chief justice of the Court of King’s Bench, Michael D. Tochor, settled on 18 years. Traverse also received a concurrent sentence of 18 months for theft of a motor vehicle.

“We’ll take a look at the decision,” Crown prosecutor Adam Breker told reporters when asked for his reaction to the sentence. “We got some of the judge’s reasons, but his full reasons are going to be coming out, he said, within the next day or so, so we’ll certainly take a look at that.

“But it’s not lost on us that it is a very significant sentence for manslaughter, one of the highest that we’ve seen in this province.”

Traverse’s lawyer participated in the hearing by phone and wasn’t available for comment afterwards.

Breker was asked why the Crown had asked for life in prison in its sentencing submissions.

“Obviously, the fact that a police officer was killed in the line of duty is the major and probably predominant aggravating factor in this case,” he replied. “As well, Mr. Traverse was somebody with a significant criminal history.

“Those two things together contributed to calling for a very, very significant penalty for an incident that, as the judge put it, only took seconds.”

RCMP Const. Shelby Patton died in the line of duty in June of 2021. (980 CJME file photo)

Melanie Patton has become an advocate for officer safety since her son’s death, and she said Thursday she won’t stop. During her conversation with media, she called for more police officers to be on patrol and for two officers to always be in a car together to help ensure their safety.

That’s already top of mind for the RCMP, according to Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore.

“We always look at officer safety; it’s such a priority,” said Blackmore, the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP. “One of our principles — what we call our ‘tactical principles’ — is that police officer safety is essential to public safety because if our police officers aren’t safe, we can’t keep the public safe.”

Blackmore said the Mounties are constantly reviewing their practices on how to protect officers, and technology is one thing on which they’re focusing.

As an example, she pointed to the drones that now are available at every detachment in the province.

“Having that aerial view, we’ve already had several situations where it has dramatically increased the officer safety for our members because they were potentially going to be subject to an ambush or something such as that,” Blackmore said.

“Those kind of steps we’re always looking at and believe that it’s critical that we have that technology accessible to our members.”

Patton’s death hit home in the community of Wolseley, where people paid tribute to him when his body was returned to the town. In Indian Head, where he was stationed, a memorial park was built in his honour.

The emotions continued Thursday during and after the sentencing hearing. Before leaving the courthouse, Melanie Patton noted all the family can do now is wait to see if Traverse appeals his sentence.

Breker spoke to the family members, but couldn’t share with reporters if the Pattons were disappointed in the outcome.

“I don’t think it’s a day that anyone comes out of feeling anything other than sadness still for the loss of Shelby Patton,” Breker said.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Gillian Massie