'Good kid' sought in Mountie shooting

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Const. Sidney Gaudette (POSTMEDIA)

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Sawyer Clarke Robison: Wanted (POSTMEDIA SUPPLIED/RCMP)

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Const. Sheldon Shah (POSTMEDIA)

KILLAM, Alta. -- RCMP were trying to reassure a nervous community in central Alberta on Wednesday as they searched for an armed man who was seen leaving a home where two Mounties were shot and another man was found dead.

Sgt. Patrick Webb said a search was on for Sawyer Clarke Robison, 27, whom a witness saw leaving the property as four officers from the detachment in Killam, about 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

The officers were part of an ongoing investigation the small detachment had been involved in for the last week. They were executing a search warrant for an illegal .45-calibre handgun.

Gunfire erupted after they arrived and two of the officers, Const. Sheldon Shah and Const. Sidney Gaudette, were cut down.

Shah and Gaudette suffered significant injuries to their torsos, but were recovering in Edmonton hospitals after surgery. One has been on the job for five years; the other for two.

Webb said Robison could be armed with long-barrelled weapons and should be considered a high risk. The sergeant warned members of the public not to approach Robison.

"We don't believe he is a danger to the public in general," said Webb. "He is believed to be armed. We're trying to determine what happened in the house last night and his involvement."

The police description contrasted with what a long-time neighbour of Robison's had to say about him and his family.

Vernon Snethun farms across the road from where Robison lives. He was shocked to hear about what happened there.

"Sawyer's a very quiet guy, he has a nice composure, he's a good kid," Snethun said Wednesday.

Snethun said he's known Robison since he was 10. There are two homes on the property -- Robison and his uncle live in the bigger bungalow while Robison's mother and father live in a smaller house.

"I was over there a couple weeks ago, had coffee, they are just normal farm people," Snethun said.

"Sawyer is their only child, he was always around them and they did a lot of things together, they rode bikes together, they did a band, so they're very family oriented."

Robison also worked as a professional photographer and had a website called Warthog Photography.

"I am a full-time photographer working throughout Alberta, Canada," he writes on the website. "Oriented towards clothing designers, dance, music, model portfolios, catalog/magazine work and original portraiture."

One photo in his portfolio shows a beautiful woman playing a violin and another wearing ballet slippers. In one vibrantly hued shot, a woman sits in a tree wearing a strapless, black and red leopard dress and black and red makeup drawn across her eyes like a mask.

Police say Robison is not facing charges and is considered a person of interest.

"It is definitely in his best interest to contact the RCMP to speak with our investigators as soon as possible," Webb said at a briefing Wednesday at the Killam detachment.

Webb said the dead man had been shot, but it wasn't clear whether it was police gunfire that killed him. The man was not identified. Several weapons were recovered at the house, Webb said.

The shooting evoked painful memories of March 2005 when James Roszko killed four officers while they were staking out his marijuana grow-op near Mayerthorpe, Alta. Roszko then killed himself.

Killam Mayor Bud James said people in the farming community of 1,000 are definitely concerned.

"This isn't an area of Alberta where we would expect to hear about these kinds of things," James said. "People are concerned for their families. They're concerned for the officers who were injured and they're concerned for the RCMP officers who are still out there trying to do their job."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 9, 2012 A8