Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

BAKER LAKE (Jun 07/99) - A Baker Lake man has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after shooting a Yellowknife RCMP officer during a 15-hour armed standoff in that community last week.

James Warren Maxwell, a 52-year-old who is originally from Nova Scotia, is also charged with uttering a death threat, uttering a threat of bodily harm, possession of a firearm while prohibited and three counts of endangering life with a firearm.

The standoff began about 10 p.m. on Monday, May 31, when Baker Lake RCMP responded to a complaint of a disturbance at a local residence.

Sgt. Lindsey Brine, RCMP Criminal Operations V Division, said that upon arriving at the scene, officers were refused entry by a male occupant.

"The RCMP members were then met by a gun shot coming towards them from inside the residence," said Sgt. Brine. "They immediately left the area and formed a containment perimeter around the residence."

After police contained the area, barricading off a space three roads wide and two blocks deep, Baker Lake RCMP were joined by three officers from the Rankin Inlet Detachment and 10 members from the RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) from Yellowknife.

At one point during the standoff, Maxwell left the residence and fired three shots at random. Sgt. Brine said after several hours of unsuccessful negotiations, Maxwell began firing shots through the walls of the house, one of which struck Cpl. Mike Beaudoin of the Yellowknife ERT in the leg.

Cpl. Beaudoin was immediately transported to Winnipeg for medical assistance. There, he was examined by a trauma team and orthopaedic team at the Health Sciences Centre. A number of lead fragments embedded in the thigh and calf of Cpl. Beaudoin's leg will remain there permanently, as doctors deemed their removal too dangerous.

Cpl. Beaudoin was released by the centre and returned to Yellowknife.

"Mike spent the night at RCMP Division HQ barracks on Portage Avenue and, in his own words, 'is feeling good,'" said Sgt. Brine. "He's resting now and reluctant, at this time, to speak about the incident."

Sgt. Brine cited the performance of all attending members at the scene as outstanding and exceptional, especially under the difficult and harsh circumstances of having a member injured by gunfire.

"Everybody continued to perform well under the stress and the proof of that is that the situation was resolved successfully without any further injuries to anyone.

"It's a difficult time for all the members involved. They're very supportive of each other and they're receiving support from other detachments and phone calls from virtually across Canada from other members aware of what happened and offering their support.

"The exact calibre of the weapon is still, as yet, undetermined. We'll have to do further testing with the guns which were seized before we can determine exactly which gun was used to shoot Cpl. Beaudoin.

"The same applies as to how the suspect got possession of the guns," added Sgt. Brine. "The investigation is still ongoing and I'm sure our investigators on the scene are looking into that."