“It is with deep sadness that I learned that Constable Daniel Woodall had been fatally shot in the line of duty, protecting the people of Edmonton. On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I offer our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We also pray for the full and speedy recovery of Sergeant Jason Harley who was shot in the same incident. It is a very difficult reminder that police officers across our country put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect our communities and keep us safe. Constable Woodall’s service to Edmonton and to Canada will be remembered and honoured. We grieve his loss today with Alberta and the rest of the country.” — Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, June 9, 2015
On Monday, 35-year-old Constable Daniel Woodall of the Edmonton Police Service went to the home of Norman Walter Raddatz at 7:50 p.m. to serve a bylaw warrant and new charges of criminal harassment against Raddatz. He was accompanied by other officers, including Southwest Division Patrol Sgt. Jason Harley, 38.
Woodall, a husband and father of two, was a member of the EPS Hate Crimes Unit.
From the National Post in a story dated June 11 (italics added):
Edmonton Police Service spokesman Scott Pattison said Wednesday the criminal harassment file being investigated by Woodall and the hate crimes unit involved anti-Semitic harassment over more than a year.
Grim Coincidences
Woodall has things in common with Officer Wenjian Liu of the New York Police Department. Both men, for example, wanted to protect and to serve through a career in law enforcement. Liu came to the United States from China. Woodall came to Canada from England.
Both men died violently and senselessly: Liu from gunshot wounds that also killed his NYPD partner Officer Rafael Ramos as they sat in their police vehicle in Brooklyn on an otherwise normal Saturday afternoon. Their ambusher/murderer was Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, who later killed himself.
Woodall died on an otherwise normal Monday night in a hail of gunfire, apparently from a high-powered rifle fired by Raddatz, whose behavior was consistent with some so-called “sovereign citizens.”
The investigation isn’t complete, but some purported “sovereigns” have been alleged to have booby-trapped their homes — perhaps by rigging them with explosive devices as was an alleged case in Ohio last year.
After 53 bullets allegedly were fired in the direction of Woodall, Harley and the other officers, the Raddatz home went up in flames. Woodall suffered a catastrophic gunshot wound, his death ruled a homicide. Harley was struck in the back and wounded. He survived.
If the incident proves to be a murder-suicide, it will be something else Woodall and Liu had in common: two officers killed by men who killed themselves.
“A body believed to be that of Raddatz, was recovered in the charred basement ruins,” according to the Hatewatch Blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
From the Hatewatch Blog (italics added):
Norman Walter Raddatz, the 42-year-old unemployed mechanic who fatally shot a Canadian hate crimes investigator this week, was not only an antigovernment “sovereign citizen,” but also a regular poster of anti-Semitic messages on the Internet.
For the past 18 months, the cop killer was involved in a “lengthy campaign of anti-Semitic hatred and violence” against a Jewish family in Edmonton, Alberta, bombarding them with escalating threats of violence, various media outlets reported today.
Raddatz also was homophobic, using Facebook accounts to call gay people “sodomites” alongside crude jokes about the film “Brokeback Mountain.”
“This is a tragic night for the Edmonton Police Service and our city,” EPS Chief Rod Knecht said in a statement late Monday. “I am extremely saddened to have to announce the death of one of our officers and the serious injury to another officer this evening.”
In Canada, “sovereign citizens” sometimes are known as “freemen on the land.” There have been various strange occurrences in Alberta. (Read about one here. Read about another here.)
In the video below, Chief Knecht says 53 bullet holes were found in the house and garage across the street from the Raddatz residence. They were from the fusillade fired at the officers.