SUNDRE – A male who called the RCMP after being chased in the backcountry by a group of men that proceeded to smash out his truck’s windows was among the calls for service local Mounties recently responded to.
Sgt. Trent Sperlie, the Sundre RCMP detachment’s commander, said during a phone interview that his members had received a total of 41 calls for service between Jan. 22-28.
The sergeant was reading reports from police files that also include details compiled from dispatch forms filled out by the operational communications centre’s staff who dispatched the members in response to the male who early on the afternoon of Saturday, Jan. 27 reported being chased by the group, who were reportedly on snowmobiles.
“The victim was hunting,” Sperlie told the Albertan, adding the individual has status rights for doing so, meaning he was Indigenous or Métis, and was by himself.
“Four people smashed his truck windows and chased him in the woods,” he said, adding the victim was not injured in the process.
Going over the details in the dispatch form, the sergeant said the victim had reportedly observed gun cases mounted on some of the snowmobiles but did not see any rifles in their hands. Sperlie could not confirm what kind of object was used to smash out the windows of the victim’s pickup truck.
“We don’t know motive,” he added. “But it is possible that these people thought this person was poaching, and took matters into their own hands. And they were wrong, if that’s the case.”
That file was still being looked into when Sperlie spoke with the Albertan, and he said that while not necessarily unheard of, these kinds of situations are not “a regular occurrence that we see.”
Additionally, one of three reports police received about gunshots or careless use of a firearm that occurred on Thursday, Jan. 25 at a rural acreage northeast of Sundre had officers proceeding with an abundance of caution.
“This one gave us a start, because it did come in after the murder call came in,” said Sperlie, referring to the shooting death investigation that was eventually taken over by the Major Crimes Unit with a second degree murder charge subsequently laid.
“We were still in the midst of the murder investigation, so members attended this with heightened awareness,” he said.
As it turned out, however, that specific report of gunshots or careless use of firearms ended up being a case of a rural resident taking aim at some squirrels, said Sperlie.
The other two reported calls of gunshots being heard were out in the backcountry and members were unable to locate anyone upon arrival, he said.
