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Trouble waiting to happen

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The shocking death of Laval Police Constable Valerie Gignac this week stirs two sets of emotions. First, naturally, come sorrow and pity over this needless death of a 25-year-old. By all accounts, Gignac had done everything by the book when she and her partner responded to a noise complaint in a Laval des Rapides apartment building on Wednesday. She was wearing a bulletproof vest, and stood to the side of the door when they knocked, just as we have all seen the good guys do in countless police dramas.

It didn't help her, as a slug from a potent .338-calibre rifle ripped through the apartment wall and struck her below the vest. She died in a Montreal hospital.

Her death reminds us all that police officers routinely face risks the rest of us never consider. Gignac's funeral Tuesday will include, as such events always do, a sea of blue-uniformed officers, not only her Laval colleagues but representatives of police forces across the country.

Beyond these somber emotions of regret and respect, however, come some harder-edge feelings. The man who shot Valerie Gignac may not have intended to hit her - he was, after all, firing through a wall. But her family, her colleagues, his neighbours and family, the people of Laval, and all the people of Canada also need to know more about the case of Francois Pepin, who has been charged.

Pepin is a 40-year-old labourer with a history of poorly managed anger, a string of legal offences, possible mental-health issues, and a probation condition limiting his access to firearms. How did he come to have in his possession the kind of rifle Laval police chief Jean-Pierre Gariepy called "a hunting gun ... used in the jungle for hunting elephants"?

It's not yet clear how the rifle used in Wednesday's killing was obtained, or if it was in Canada's gun registry, that useless billion-dollar bureaucratic boondoggle. Beyond that issue, this case also supports the argument that what this country needs is not more gun control, but better social services. Many who knew him knew Pepin was serious trouble waiting to happen, but the system let him slip along, until this happened. It's eerily reminiscent of last March's killing of four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alta. - another case involving a scary loner who was well known to the justice system, but not taken seriously enough.

Dealing with such people is not easy. First, there are important civil liberties issues. Nobody wants a country where people are locked up for a harsh remark or a quarrel with a boss or neighbour. Second, manpower is limited, in both law enforcement and social work.

Sorting out those truly at risk of snapping will never be an exact science, but it can surely be done better than at present. But we need better ways to defuse human time bombs, if we hope to protect our police officers, and us all.