Peter Schiemann, 25, son of a Lutheran church leader in Canada, was one of four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers killed March 3 in a shootout with a 
suspect at his farm near Rochfort Bridge in northwest Alberta.
Rev. Don Schiemann, Peter’s father, is president of Lutheran Church — Canada’s (LCC) Alberta-British Columbia District. Missouri Synod congregations in Canada formed LCC in 1988.
The other officers of the famed national police forced killed in the shootout with Jim Roszko, who died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, were Anthony Gordon, 28; Leo Johnston, 34; and Brock Myrol, 29.
Law-enforcement officers found the bodies in a Quonset hut on Roszko’s farm, where the Mounties were conducting an investigation into reports of stolen property.
Rochfort Bridge is outside Mayerthorpe, where three of the four constables were stationed — about 90 miles northwest of Edmonton.
News organizations quoted Bill Sweeney, the Mounties commanding officer in Alberta, as saying that it had been 120 years since that many police officers had been shot and killed at the same crime scene in the country.
Ian Adnams, LCC director of communications, said that 1,140 people attended Schiemann’s funeral service March 8 at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Stony Plain, Alberta, where Schiemann was a member. Several hundred others watched via closed-circuit television in two local high-school gyms. The service, with LCC President Ralph Mayan delivering the sermon, was telecast live nationwide by CTV Newsnet.
In his sermon, Mayan said that was happened to Schiemann and the three other Mounties “was horrific, sin run rampant. But horror and evil, sin and death did not win [that] day. Jesus Christ already has and now Peter has — with Jesus Christ awaiting that great day of resurrection.”
“That same eternal encouragement and good hope given to Peter is there for you,” Mayan added.
Two days later, an estimated 10,000 were at a national memorial service for the four officers in Edmonton while three national networks broadcast that service.
Peter Schiemann was a 2000 graduate of the LCC’s Concordia University College of Alberta, in Edmonton.
In a statement to media after the shootings, President Schiemann expressed “our heartfelt thanks for the outpouring of prayers and support which are coming in from across Canada.”
“In addition to President Schiemann’s thanks for support,” Adnans told Reporter, “at every opportunity he made a clear statement of the Gospel and the news media reported it.”
Adnans also said that numerous viewers throughout Canada responded positively to the “clear Law and Gospel proclamation” in Mayan’s funeral sermon. Also surviving Schiemann are his mother, Beth, and a brother and sister.
Posted March 31, 2005
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