One Mountie Dead, 2 Injured at BC Crime Scene

COQUITLAM - One RCMP officer is dead and two others seriously injured after police executed a search warrant at a home in Coquitlam, British Columbia.

The suspect was also shot and sustained serious injuries, according to an official statement issued by Mounties.

"The attending officers became engaged in an altercation with a man which resulted in multiple officers being injured and the man being shot," B.C. RCMP spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said in a media release. "Emergency Health Services transported all injured to hospital, but one of the officers was shot and succumbed to their injuries."

At a news conference, Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald - the commanding officer of the B.C. RCMP - identified the slain officer as Constable Rick O'Brien (see the photo). O'Brien, 51, was a decorated constable from the Ridge Meadows detachment and he just recently celebrated seven years of service. He leaves behind a wife and children.

Mounties said the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has been deployed and will investigate O'Brien's death and the injuries to the other officers. 

The neighbouring city of Pitt Meadows confirmed on social media that an officer from the Ridge Meadows detachment - which serves the cities of Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge - had been killed in the line of duty.

Authorities said little about what unfolded on Glen Drive in Coquitlam, but from the start, reports were dire. Premier David Eby was addressing the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention as the incident was occurring, and he began his remarks to reporters after the speech by acknowledging that there had been a "critical incident" in Coquitlam involving the RCMP.

Heavily armed officers from the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team could be seen at the scene, and witnesses told of observing a police officer limping out of the building with blood all over his leg, and another person being stretchered out.

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