Fri, March 4, 2005
Portrait of a killer
'I Wouldn't Go in There Unless I Was Prepared for the Worst'
By LORI COOLICAN, PAUL COWAN, DAVID SANDS AND MAX MAUDIE, SUN MEDIA
To his father, he was "the devil." To old friends, he was a "freak" and a man they feared. Everyone seemed to agree that from an early age James Roszko was one dangerous guy, with one huge chip on his shoulder.
And he really didn't like the RCMP.
In his home south of Mayerthorpe, Alta., Roszko's father, Bill, was glued to his radio during the four-hour siege at the farm house near Rochfort Bridge. It ended after his son had slain four Mounties, then shot himself.
"He's been in trouble so many other times, I hate it," the senior Roszko said, telling reporters his 47-year-old son was "the devil.
"I don't want him as my son. He must be doped up. That's when he's very dangerous."
Bill Roszko said last night he had not heard that his son had been killed but he was horrified to think that Mounties were dead.
"That's a terrible thing," he said. "Horrible, horrible."
He last saw his son in 1994, when Jim would come by to help him with the hay on his farm, for pay, he said. At that time, he lived on a trailer on the property.
He believes his son broke off contact after a stint in jail in the mid-90s. "He just wandered out of my life. I think he was ashamed to see me."
MARITAL BREAKUP
Roszko, 80, said his son started misbehaving following his parents' marital breakup when he was about 12 years old.
"He had a lot of ability to do really well for himself when he wasn't on dope or hanging out with bad boys," the devastated father said.
Roszko said his son had three sisters and four brothers.
An old acquaintance who partied with Roszko when they were teenagers told Sun Media the cop-killer was notorious in the community.
"The guy was a freak. He's been in trouble ever since I've known him," said the man, who requested anonymity.
Local Mounties had trouble with Roszko "for years and years," the man said.
"It just amazes me that they would go in there like that. I know I wouldn't go in there unless I was prepared for the worst -- because that's all you could expect from this fellow. It doesn't surprise me if he shot himself, either. He wasn't the type of guy to give up."
Donna Toker, 62, also knew Roszko. He was a few years younger and "was kinda shy, that's all I can remember."
But things were a lot more memorable -- and a lot more dangerous -- when they next met.
Toker and her husband were at Roszko's property at the end of August 2004, enumerating for the provincial election. All four tires of their truck were punctured when they drove over a spike belt at the entrance to his property.
MILITARY COMPOUND
She said the place looked like a military compound, with guard dogs and two fences around the perimeter.
They didn't approach Roszko at the time, instead complaining to the RCMP. Roszko was due in Stony Plain court the next month on two counts of mischief related to people's tires getting flattened by the spike belt.
"I thought he might retaliate because I had heard when he gets mad, he gets really mad. I was afraid he'd come and shoot us or burn our house down," Toker said.
The spike belt was in use as far back as Aug. 4, 1999, when a group of Mounties went to Roszko's farm with a bailiff who had a warrant to seize two trucks and a herd of cattle from him as part of a lawsuit over an outstanding debt.
In an affidavit later filed with the court, the bailiff said Mounties warned her Roszko had a long criminal record and was "known to have booby-trapped land and used a spike belt to discourage visitors."
"It has been my experience that several people are quite afraid to give information about (Roszko) because even though I have reassured them that it is confidential, they are really afraid of retaliation of a violent sort from (him)," the bailiff's affidavit says.
Mounties who went to the farm with her were told to watch what they said over the airwaves because Roszko "had a scanner and listened to it constantly."
RCMP officers decided not to enter the property that day, the affidavit states.
FLAK JACKET
When the bailiff insisted on breaking through the gate and going onto the property to serve Roszko with papers by herself -- which she was entitled to do by court order -- Mounties loaned her a radio and flak jacket for her own safety, the document adds.
A local veterinarian, called to the property with RCMP officers and the bailiff in case cattle were seized that day, refused to go in at any time out of fear for his own safety because he lived nearby.
The bailiff eventually got onto the farm accompanied by Roszko's mother and stepfather. She found none of the property she was looking for, but spoke with Roszko.
"He constantly manipulated the conversation to blame the RCMP for all his troubles," she stated in the affidavit.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/03/04/949914-sun.html
Fri, March 4, 2005
Cop Killer Shot at Men Trespassing on His Land
By TONY BLAIS AND MAX MAUDIE, SUN MEDIA
COP SHOOTER Jim Roszko has had numerous run-ins with the law over the years, served time in prison at least once and was known as a man who liked weapons. The northwestern Alberta man also shot at people who came onto his rural property.
Lawyer Guy Fontaine, who said he represented Roszko on a litany of charges, wasn't surprised to hear Roszko went out in a police bloodbath.
"There was no love lost between Roszko and the RCMP."
In a 1993 disagreement with school officials over bus routes, Roszko faced a litany of charges, including unlawful confinement, pointing a firearm, assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public and impersonating a police officer.
Rumours of child molestation at Roszko's residence plagued him too, Fontaine said. He remembered representing Roszko in at least one case of alleged child molestation, but could not remember the outcome.
And at least once, Fontaine said, the court had Roszco assessed to see if he was mentally fit to enter a plea in court. Fontaine said he was found fit for trial.
In court documents obtained yesterday, Sun Media learned Roszko, 46, faced charges for allegedly using a 12-gauge shotgun on two trespassers in 1999.
The charges were dismissed on Oct. 16, 2003.
However, details of the case are in a transcript of a preliminary hearing.
At the hearing, Bobby MacDougall testified he had gone to Roszko's farm with Nathan Watson around 3 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1999, to break some windows and steal gas.
After Watson refused to go on the property, MacDougall went alone and was confronted by a shotgun-toting Roszko, who made him lie on the ground and tied his hands behind his back.
MacDougall told Sun Media yesterday Roszko "just walked up behind me and put a gun to my head. He's just a different type of person."
Roszko forced MacDougall to return to the gate and call Watson, who was hiding, then tried to get them to go onto his property.
Court heard Roszko fired at Watson and pellets grazed his face and arms.
When Roszko hit MacDougall in the ribs with the barrel of the shotgun, Watson jumped on him and eventually got the gun, MacDougall said. He began hitting Roszko in the head with it while MacDougall punched and kicked him several times.
FLED IN TRUCK
The two men fled in Watson's truck with the shotgun and went to the local hospital, where they were later arrested and also charged. Watson testified Roszko once referred to Albertan Wiebo Ludwig, jailed for his role in oilpatch vandalism. Karman Willis was shot while joyriding on Ludwig's farm in 1999 and the crime remains unsolved.
Watson said Roszko suggested he could shoot people trespassing on his property and get away with it.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/03/04/949915-sun.html
