WATCH ABOVE: RCMP say 34-year-old Shawn Maxwell Rehn, the man responsible for shooting two Alberta Mounties in a St. Albert casino, had a lengthy criminal history. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — St. Albert RCMP has identified the man responsible for shooting two Mounties inside a casino early Saturday morning.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said 34-year-old Shawn Maxwell Rehn had a lengthy, “incredibly complex criminal history” and was “very, very well known to police.”
“Overlapping firearms prohibitions and just a series of conditions that aren’t making sense to me as I review it, and I’ve been policing for 30 years,” Paulson said Sunday evening.
“He had a history of firearms-related offences. He had been prohibited from possessing firearms for his life. He was out on conditions that had him not possess ammunition, firearms and, as I said, some of these things were overlapping.”
WATCH: Alberta RCMP update St. Albert shooting Sunday evening
Court documents also show Rehn had served jail time for break and enter, theft, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, possession of property under $5,000, housing break-in and committing theft, obstructing a peace officer, failing to attend court, assault with a weapon, and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
Rehn was found dead inside a rural St. Albert-area home after an intense manhunt. The search for Rehn began early Saturday morning after an altercation inside the Apex Casino, where RCMP Cst. David Wynn and Auxiliary Constable Derek Bond were shot.
Sunday evening, RCMP said both men were shot at very close range. Bond was released from hospital Saturday, but will require ongoing medical care. Alberta RCMP Deputy Commissioner Marianne Ryan said Wynn remains in hospital but is not likely to survive.
In a statement, the maternal grandmother and legal guardian of Rehn’s daughter, said:
“The world is a better place now without him and not as good without the officer he killed.”
READ MORE: Wounded St. Albert Mountie David Wynn not expected to survive: RCMP
Police tracked Rehn to a rural home southeast of the Sturgeon Valley Golf and Country Club. Once inside, officers found Rehn dead.
“The suspect’s body was found when officers entered the residence in their efforts to locate him,” Assistant Commissioner Marlin Degrand said Saturday. “At no time during these efforts to arrest the suspect at that residence, did officers speak with the suspect or fire their weapons.”
Paulson said there was no way for the two RCMP officers to know what they were dealing with when they entered the casino Saturday morning.
“They had no idea who this person was, none whatsoever,” Paulson said. “There was no way that we could expect that these officers would know what kind of threat was walking around inside that casino.”
Paulson said Bond and Wynn were well-equipped for the investigation. He added there will be an in-depth investigation into what led Rehn to be free.
“This was a developing investigation of a, sadly, a routine stolen vehicle that happened in the blink of an eye in a public place,” said Paulson.
“Frankly, this is not an issue of tactical response gone bad. This is an issue of this individual walking around in conditions that we need to understand whether it was reasonable for this man to be walking around us.”
READ MORE: Suspect in St. Albert RCMP shooting dead; wounded officers identified
An autopsy to determine the cause of Rehn’s death is scheduled for Monday.
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