Fri Nov 17,
Canadian Press
MUSKOWEKWAN RESERVE, Sask. (CP) - Questions continue to swirl about the RCMP shooting of an aboriginal man on a reserve north of Regina, leaving some to fear that the incident is making natives lose faith in police.
Delbert Kenneth Pelletier, 44, was killed after an eight-hour standoff Monday on the Muskowekwan First Nation near
RCMP Sgt. Brad Kaeding said the emergency response team was trying to negotiate with Pelletier when a shot was fired from inside the house. Pelletier left the house and again fired, hitting a police car. That's when he was shot once by police, Kaeding said.
On Friday, Pelletier's widow put out a news release through the RCMP saying she was there the morning her husband was killed and she has made peace with his death.
But other family members and friends say there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the shooting and they fear it is straining the community's relationship with police.
"People are scared now," said Harvey Desjarlais, an elder in the community and a friend of Pelletier's.
"According to some of the members that I've talked to in the community, they say that if there is an incident that happens in the community, they are not going to call the RCMP anymore. It's not safe to call them."
Pelletier's cousin, Roland Desjarlais, said community members should have been asked to try to talk Pelletier out of the house that day.
"He had at least a half dozen people that would have went in and discussed that with him - that wanted to go in - but they did not let them in," he said.
Those sentiments were echoed by Muskowekwan Chief Reg Bellerose.
At a news conference held to discuss the shooting, Bellerose called on the provincial and federal governments to consult with First Nations leadership and develop better protocols for interacting with aboriginal people.
"The community should have been involved," he said.
"I understand that safety is always an issue, but with community involvement there may have been a different result. I don't want to speculate, but hopefully some new protocols could be established that would ensure that the community was involved to a certain degree."
Kaeding said there is no rule when it comes to enlisting help in negotiating with a barricade suspect from those who know him.
"It's strictly determined on a case-by-case basis," he said. "It could be that, that would be done, but only after some work had been done to determine what that person's reaction would be."
In this case, Kaeding said the exchange of gunfire came too quickly for that decision to be made.
Glen Pratt, the vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations responsible for justice issues, said he hopes there will be a coroner's inquest to clear the air surrounding the incident.
RCMP are still investigating, with a
Bellerose remembered Pelletier as a kind-hearted soul always willing to help out in the community.
A bear of a man at over 300 pounds, his passions were hunting and horses. He would often hitch up his chuckwagon for the funerals of elders so that they could be taken to their gravesites with honour, Bellerose said.
He was known to work on farms in the surrounding area and was an amateur mechanic who often helped his friends fix their cars.
"Kenny was a very friendly man," Bellerose said. "He was always saying hello to everybody as he went about his day."