By David Helwig
SooToday.com
Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Kevin Gregson, the former Sault Area Hospital orderly accused of fatally stabbing an Ottawa police constable yesterday, once claimed that he was part of an exclusive fraternity of government-trained killers.

Gregson's boast of being one of an elite few recipients of special forces combat training in the art of taking human life is outlined in evidence submitted to an adjudication board that ordered him last year to either quit the RCMP or be fired.

Police are generally expected to protect human life, not to take it.

So training of police officers in application of lethal force is controversial.

The RCMP's special emergency response team (SERT) was disbanded in 1993, its counter-terrorism responsibilities taken over by the ultra-secret Canadian Forces JTF-2 unit that helped free James Loney and other Christian Peacemaker Team hostages in Iraq in 2006.

But the RCMP still maintains a national network of paramilitary tactical teams including highly trained snipers.

Evidence reviewed by the adjudication board shows that in a 2006 encounter with a Mormon bishop in Regina, Saskatchewan, Gregson pulled out a six- to eight-inch knife, laying it on the church official's desk with the knife's two- or three-inch blade pointing at him.

Gregson (shown above in a Facebook photo) then outlined special tactical assault training that he said he'd received both inside and outside the RCMP.

"You don't know how many ways I have been taught to kill a man," Gregson said. "I would rather fight you with this knife than with a pistol. I can take someone out so much faster with this than any other way."

Last night, Gregson was charged with the first-degree murder of Constable Eric Czapnik, who police say was ambushed early yesterday by a knife-wielding killer as he sat in his cruiser outside the emergency department of the Ottawa's Civic Hospital.

Four nearby paramedics intervened and subdued a male suspect.

But not before Czapnik's throat had been fatally slashed.

After Gregson's trained-killer boast three years ago, Bishop Robert Howie of the Church of Latter-Day Saints viewed him as a potential threat.

Gregson had pulled the knife immediately after Bishop Howie had advised him that he was denied access to the church's inner sanctuary.

This was necessary, the church leader explained, because Gregson was involved in a sexual relationship outside his failing marriage.

Gregson responded that he was feeling "messed up" and under a lot of stress because he feared losing his RCMP job.

Bishop Howie immediately called his church's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, to discuss Gregson's behaviour.

The church official stayed away from his office and arranged for some men in his congregation to protect himself and his wife and children.

This lasted for a couple of weeks, after which Howie decided to notify police of Gregson's actions.

The RCMP officer was eventually charged, receiving a conditional discharge when he pleaded guilty to uttering a death threat against Howie.

One month before his encounter with the Mormon bishop, Gregson had undergone emergency surgery to insert a shunt to relieve a life-threatening condition known as hydrocephalus involving several cysts in the basal cisterns of his brain stem.

As a result, he suffered headaches, nausea, vomiting, confusion, loss of memory, disorientation, blurred vision, burning sensations in the scalp and eyes, fatigue, weight loss and loss of consciousness.

The RCMP adjudication board did not believe Gregson's medical condition accounted for his behaviour and in a highly critical decision, directed him to quit his job or face dismissal for acting in a disgraceful manner that brought discredit on the force.

Gregson had shown no remorse for what he had done and had offered no apology, the board ruled.

"The board found no indicators of rehabilitative potential and therefore ordered the resignation of the member within 14 days, in default of which dismissal would result."

Evidence indicated that Constable Gregson had received a commendation from his commanding officer in 2004, but the adjudication board found his performance appraisals ranged from average to below average.

"Given Constable Gregson's tendency to do or say whatever he wants with no regard to the consequences, the board feels that the recurrence of a serious incident would only be a matter of time."

Gregson, a graduate of Sault College's native addictions counsellor program, once worked as an orderly at Sault Area Hospital's Riverview Mental Health Centre.

He is also reported to have volunteered at the Community Operated Police Storefront.

CanWest News Service reports that that, just hours before Constable Czapnik was fatally slashed early yesterday, Gregson wrote on his Facebook page: "Life sometimes just runs you over. It doesn't matter how hard you try."

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Full SooToday.com coverage of this story

Police officer slain at Ottawa hospital ER
Former Saultite held in fatal Ottawa police stabbing
Statement from family of Constable Eric Czapnik
Former Saultite charged with murder of Ottawa cop
Former Saultite boasted of elite training in art of killing