A relative of two men charged in the 2005 murders of four Alberta RCMP officers says she is surprised but not shocked by the development.
"The RCMP have been hassling Dennis and Shawn since day one," Marion Power told CTV News on Monday from Barrhead, Alta.
Power is a cousin of Dennis Keegan Rodney Cheeseman, 23, and his sister Christine, who is married to Shawn William Hennessey, 28, the other suspect arrested on the weekend. All three live together near Barrhead.
The arrest has been particularly hard on Christine, who has two daughters with Hennessey, she said.
"It's devastating. It's bad enough to lose your soulmate but to lose your brother too," Power said.
Barry Hennessey, Shawn's father, told The Canadian Press that he can't believe his son could be involved in such a crime.
Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman face four first-degree murder charges in connection with the shooting deaths of four RCMP officers on the farm of James Roszko on March 3, 2005.
The dead officers are Consts. Brock Myrol, Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon and Leo Johnston. Roszko ambushed them.
A 28-month undercover investigation that cost $2 million and involved a maximum of 200 investigators and support staff resulted in first-degree murder charges against the two men.
The RCMP on Sunday announced the arrests of Cheeseman and Hennesey.
The accused are accused of being parties to the offences committed by Roszko. The men will appear in court on Thursday.
Acquaintances of Roszko
Cheeseman and Hennesey were known to police and were "well acquainted" with Roszko, said Assistant Commissioner Rod Knecht on Sunday, without elaborating.
"They were associates over an extended period of time," Knecht said.
Hennesey, a married father of two, was identified as a person of interest early in the investigation. Unproved allegations contained in search warrants said Hennesey sold marijuana for Roszko, which he denied, The Globe and Mail reported.
Those who know Hennesey, who worked at a Kal Tire automotive shop in nearby Barrhead, described him as a hard-working family man.
On March 2, 2005, the RCMP were called to Roszko's farm to assist bailiffs executing a civil court order. Roszko fled the property in a pickup, and police found a marijuana grow operation and stolen auto parts.
As police secured the property, several calls were placed from Roszko's cellphone to Kal Tire and to the cellphone assigned to Kal Tire's service truck, The Globe reports.
Roszko also placed a call to his aunt that afternoon, and her call display showed the name "S. Hennessey," the newspaper reported.
The next morning, Roszko returned to the farm and killed the four officers with a high-powered semi-automatic assault rifle. He then shot himself.
Police suspected at the time he had assistance in returning to the farm, given that his truck had been found 24 kilometres away.
In an interview with The Globe last year, Hennesey denied any links to the crime, saying he didn't know why Roszko called him that day.
"I guess he didn't have any friends. I can't tell you why he called me," Hennesey said at the time.
One of the weapons Roszko was carrying that day was a rifle registered to Hennesey's grandfather, which he said had been stolen four months earlier, the newspaper reported.
Barry Hennessay said Roszko sometimes visited his son and occasionally received some free merchandise.
"James (Roszko) was driving these guys crazy. It got out of control," he said without elaborating. "It wasn't a friendship."
Power had this to say about Roszko: "He's still ruining lives from beyond the grave."
Family speaks
Parents of an RCMP officer slain two years ago used the occasion of arrests in the two-year-old case to praise the beleaguered force.
Keith and Colleen Myrol told a news conference Monday in Red Deer, Alta. that they never lost faith in the RCMP, even as the months ticked by after the March 3, 2005 shooting.
"Well done, Mounties. We're proud of you. We had faith in you all along and you proved worthy of our faith," Keith said as he stood with his wife in front of their home.
"When media and politics stay out of their way, the RCMP get things done."
With a report from CTV's Deborah Shiry and files from The Canadian Press
