Mike on Crime

By Alexandra Paul
Winnipeg Free Press

Shamattawa First Nation has vowed to bring to justice an arsonist who torched the home of an RCMP officer.

Now, the band has vowed to bring an arsonist to justice.

“We need to catch the individual(s) that would commit such heinous act,” Shamattawa Chief Jeffrey Napoakesik said Wednesday night.

A smoke detector alerted the officer in time so he could escape his trailer home without injury, the chief said.

The officer, who is nearing the end of his two-year term in Shamattawa, was treated at the local nursing station for minor smoke inhalation.

RCMP confirmed arson is suspected.

Shamattawa issued a statement within hours of the arson to inform the public about the fire, insisting the First Nation community will do all it can to find the person responsible.

The person or persons will have no place to hide, Napoakesik said in an interview Wednesday evening. “As a community we feel the need to use our internal knowledge of the community to help the RCMP track down the culprit,” he said.

“Internal knowledge” means the community is ready to pass on information, including rumours in Cree — a language investigating RCMP might not understand — to help the Mounties.

“Somebody will have said something. Or somebody will be bragging.”

The community’s fire chief reported the fire around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The arson is believed to have started when somebody broke into the fenced compound around the RCMP quarters and, possibly, set a heap of dry grass and paper on fire. It then spread to the trailer.

The provincial Office of the Fire Commissioner is on scene to assist in the investigation

The trailer wasn’t completely destroyed, but did sustain extensive smoke damage, RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Line Karpish said.

Shamattawa, a community of about 1,200, is located 750 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg on the shores of Gods River.