Cop killing cop leads to unanswered questions

Questions like, “But he went to church with me as a boy. How can he be a killer now? No, no, no..”

CBC Radio was reporting on the story this morning and that was pretty much all a childhood friend of Kevin Gregson had to say. He’s the RCMP officer who stabbed and killed an Ottawa city police officer and was already in hot water for knife threats against a Mormon bishop here in Saskatchewan. This is certainly not a typical cop death.

In April 2007, Gregson pleaded guilty in a Regina court to uttering a death threat against a Mormon bishop, but received a conditional discharge when his lawyer persuaded the judge that cysts in Gregson’s brain had contributed to his behaviour.

The court heard that Gregson was off duty when he approached Bishop Robert Howie about receiving what’s called a “temple recommend,” which allows members to enter a Mormon temple for religious ceremonies.

When the bishop told Gregson he had additional spiritual work to do before he could receive the recommendation, Gregson became angry and said: “I’m a cop, I’m not like the rest of you,” according to court documents.

Gregson then pulled out a knife and said, “You don’t know how many ways I’ve been taught to kill.”

After he calmed down, Gregson left the bishop’s office complaining about feeling “messed up” in his head, court heard.

Several months after that incident, Gregson was diagnosed with cysts in his brain. He has since had brain surgery and been under suspension without pay from his position at the RCMP’s Regina headquarters.

Did they not get them all? Did they grow back? Or did cysts have zip to do with his violent predilections this time around, too? Is it due to stress related after-effects from his job with the Mounties, or has he always been a nutjob ticking down who still managed to get a job with our bright boys and girls in red serge?

There are questions to be answered, all right.

From a commenter, Naomi, on the article:

As angry as we all can be over this incident, the fact remains, our killer seems to have some enormously emotional issues. It is at times like these that I would honestly hope my fellow posters, while not in any way condoning what has happened, would consider the possiblity of mental illness not being a choice. The fact remains we don’t have details of this perpetrator’s issues, and yet nobody even seems to care.

The numerous calls for capital punishment don’t answer this particular problem Will I take a toothbrush: If it is as simple as an eye for an eye…go ahead. You have proved that evolution has meant nothing.

I’m assuming “Will I take a toothbrush” refers to this being a reply to someone else, but I don’t know how many pages back. But anyway, “Eye for an eye” never meant the actual eye. According to Jewish tradition, it was meant to be a monetary value to be paid back, not like for like.

I don’t want to get into capital punishment in this post. It’s too big an issue for this time of the morning. But, I seem to recall reading somewhere that it has yet to solve any problems, so why try and bring it back to Canada now? It’s not a real solution to anything.

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This has been a cross post from yours truly. Glad to be back after Christmas!