RCMP from nearby B.C. detachment rushed to scene of fatal officer shooting, court hears  

RCMP members who were on duty with Const. Rick O’Brien when he was fatally shot during a raid in 2023 told the court what they witnessed.

The condo tower where Const. Rick O’Brien was shot and killed while executing a drug warrant in September of 2023 is just two hundred metres from the Coquitlam RCMP detachment.

At the first-degree murder trial of Nicholas Bellemare, the man accused of killing O’Brien, testified about what happened when the shots fired call came over the radio.

Supt. Chris Goebel, currently the officer in charge of the Kelowna detachment, was then an inspector in Coquitlam.

He told the court he was in a meeting at the time and went directly to the detachment’s watch commander to learn more about what was happening.

That’s when he learned officers from Ridge Meadows had planned to execute multiple search warrants in Coquitlam that day.

As the most senior officer on duty in Coquitlam at the time, Goebel took it upon himself to go to the nearby condo tower and take charge of the scene.

“I just wanted to attend and take control, but also to help out in any way I could,” he said.

He testified he immediately called for assistance from the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team, before making his way to the 22^nd floor of the condo tower where the shooting had taken place.

Goebel testified that when the door to the elevator opened, he first noticed a female RCMP officer interacting with a shirtless man to the left of the doors.

Then, glancing to the right, he saw officers tending to O’Brien.

“(They) said he was shot in the head and had no pulse,” Goebel told the court.

He said as officers pulled O’Brien down the hallway, his hard body armour had ridden up and was covering his head.

“It had moved up and I couldn’t see it. So, I immediately wanted to triage his injuries and see if I could help him,” Goebel said.

He told the court he removed a rifle slung over O’Brien’s shoulder and then took his body armour off.

Security video played in court shows Goebel and other officers pulling O’Brien into the elevator and taking him down to waiting paramedics in the lobby.

Despite extensive life-saving efforts, O’Brien would later be pronounced deceased in an ambulance outside the condo tower.

Bellemare was also hit during the exchange of gunfire.

The security video shows officers leading him in handcuffs, wearing nothing but his underwear, down the elevator and through the parkade to the street.

He was later treated in hospital for a gunshot wound to his left forearm.

Goebel testified other officers on the 22^nd floor remained on high alert with their weapons drawn because they didn’t know if there were any other suspects in the unit.

As ERT officers assembled, they used drones and a robot to search the apartment—before sending in a dog, and then finally going in themselves.

No other suspects were located in the apartment.

Bellemare is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons offences.

The trial is scheduled to run until mid-December.

None of the other officers who were present when police initially breached the door and came under fire have testified yet.

Two of them were also injured in the shootout.