A police road block is seen on Glen Drive after a shooting involving RCMP officers in Coquitlam B.C. on Friday, September 22, 2023. The death of a Metro Vancouver RCMP officer who was shot dead while executing a search warrant is reverberating with law enforcement officials across the country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
A 25-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an RCMP officer in Coquitlam, B.C.
Police allege Nicholas Bellemare fatally shot Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien on Friday during a drug investigation originating in Maple Ridge, B.C.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the Coquitlam and Ridge Meadows RCMP detachments issued a joint statement saying Mounties were executing a warrant when an altercation began between Bellemare and police at around 10 a.m.
The incident resulted in O’Brien and another officer being shot, with a third officer also sustaining unspecified injuries. O’Brien died at the scene.
Bellemare, who police say was also shot and wounded in the altercation, has been charged with one count each of first-degree murder and attempted murder with a firearm.
O’Brien’s death in Coquitlam comes less than a year after another RCMP officer, Const. Shaelyn Yang, was stabbed to death while accompanying a Burnaby, B.C., city worker to a campsite used by homeless residents.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2023.
