April’s mass shooting in Nova Scotia took the lives of 22 people, including a RCMP officer, and the shock has been felt throughout the country, including our local police detachment.
Superintendent of the Kamloops headquarters, Syd Lecky, was on the NL Morning News and said the shootings have had a particular impact at the detachment.
“We have a lot of our people that live in our community that are from the east coast, myself included,” he said.
“A lot of our members and staff are from the east coast so not only do we feel the impacts as community members but certainly as police officers, those of us and those working in our offices and with us.”
He says when a Mountie dies in the line of duty, it affects the entire force.
“We do wear these things you know and we think of our people that are working on the front lines and what they have to deal with under very difficult circumstances and I can tell you we are very much feeling the effects of it,” Lecky said.
This one however had a particular impact on the Superintendent for a couple of reasons.
One, Nova Scotia is his home province and two, “Constable Heidi Stevenson was in training when I was there so we had the same service and we think about those things and we all have families and we think if the impact it had on her family so very much impacted by it but we’re moving on and that’s what we do,” Lecky noted.
As far as paying tribute to Constable Stevenson, Lecky says they did have a small ceremony outside of the station but because of COVID-19 restrictions, it had to be kept to just five people.