Steinbach couple pays tribute to slain officer

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This article was published 01/05/2020 (1907 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Steinbach couple is paying tribute to the slain RCMP member in Nova Scotia resulting from last week’s mass shooting.

On April 19, Const. Heidi Stevenson was killed during an active shooter incident. Stevenson grew up in Antigonish County, and went to school in Antigonish.

Andre Arsenault, who grew up in Antigonish, was a serving member of the RCMP in Manitoba for 30 years.

“It’s a tribute to her and the people of Nova Scotia,” Arsenault said. He said he didn’t know Stevenson nor Stevenson’s family.

Andre’s wife Lil Arsenault chose not to use the red serge in the tribute, and chose a uniform Stevenson would likely have been wearing at the time.

Lil retired as a dispatcher for the RCMP, but also did dispatch work for fire and ambulance.

The heat of moment can prompt many calls to dispatch. Lil said in such situations, getting members out is the number one priority.

Lil has also fielded calls from members of the public and media that phoned into dispatch during emergency situations.

“‘We want to know this and we want to know that,’” Lil said, characterizing such calls. “Well [as a dispatcher] that’s the least important thing on your mind.”

Family members of the slain have questioned if Nova Scotia RCMP properly communicated the situation, and wondered if their family members would still be alive if the RCMP used a cell phone text message alert system rather than Twitter.

Lil said she saw where mistakes could be made, but they weren’t made intentionally. Andre hopes the RCMP can consider the situation one in which “lessons are learned.”

Gabriel Wortman shot Stevenson, and police later killed Wortman. The death toll from the situation was 23 according to RCMP.