Shaking My Head

I don't get it. I really don't. This past Saturday, a RCMP officer was murdered when responding to a distress call at an apartment building at 5:00 am. When dispatch lost radio contact with Constable Warden, other officers were sent to the scene. It is unclear as to how long it took to find Const. Warden, but he was found in a wooded area across the street from the apartment building. Const. Warden was dying from gunshot wounds where he shortly thereafter died in the hospital.

One day later, a suspect was charged with first degree murder and a manhunt has ensued and is still ongoing. The manhunt now encompasses all of WESTERN CANADA and this suspect is a known individual to the police; he has had past altercations with the drug and gang police unit in Northern Alberta.

Now this is where I really start shaking my head: in today's newspaper and on TV, the suspect's family will not encourage this individual to give himself up. Why? Well they believe that he is innocent. For me this is difficult to comprehend. Would it not be prudent to encourage this individual to give himself over and then go by the old adage, Innocent until Proven Guilty? To me by continuing to run, it is demonstrating guilt and a lack of character. One family member of the suspect has even gone so far as to indicate that the suspect could not be guilty because he has a three month old child. Former teachers of the suspect claim that they are not surprised to hear that he is in hot water so to speak but have not gone as far as to say that they believe he would be capable of murder. Regardless, obviously the suspect has had to be involved as some level to be formerly charged of this crime.

So, to the suspect's family: What about Constable Worden's family? What about his wife and his beautiful 8 month old daughter that have been left behind? If the shoe was on the other foot, would you not wish to have the person who is suspected of taking away everything that was precious to you, to come forward even if he turned out to be innocent? Sorry, call me judgemental or call me cynical, but I just can not justify your stance by the message that you have sent via the media to Emrah Bulatci or Justin Elise or whatever name he is going by now to continue to run.