RCMP Watch

Merritt, B.C. (Canadian Press) - Nearly a day after the tragic murders of three young children, residents of this tight-knit ranching community were further shocked to find out that the prime suspect was on the loose and considered dangerous.

RCMP assured the public Sunday they had nothing to fear following the slaying of the children, saying it was not a random act and that there was no manhunt for the perpetrator.

“We don’t feel there’s a threat to the community,” Const. Tracy Dunsmore said Sunday.

It wasn’t until Monday that RCMP disclosed that they were looking for the children’s father, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, and that he “may be dangerous.”

“Police are requesting the public not approach Schoenborn,” police said Monday.

Misty McKenna came to the house where the slayings occurred to drop off flowers.

Through tears, she said her five-year-old daughter was a friend of the youngest one, who she identified as Cordon, also five.

“This happened at 2 o’clock. My daughter was out playing on the street with the neighbours. . . just completely being a kid,” said McKenna.

She said residents should have been told that police were looking for Schoenborn.

“It’s something that everyone should have known about,” she said.

On Monday, police confirmed Schoenborn had a court order barring him from contacting the principal and the other children at the school.

He had also been charged late last year with sexual assault and uttering threats, charges which were later stayed.

Const. Julie Rattee said there has been no indication that the public is specifically at risk.

But she also said: “He is obviously considered to be dangerous, although this was a targeted offence.”

Rattee said RCMP did not alert the public on Sunday because they didn’t have a confirmed suspect in the killings.

“You have to have somebody who’s arrestable for a crime before you go out publicly and say that you’re looking for a suspect,” she told reporters in Merritt.

Bur Merritt resident Ted Tom, father of boys aged 10 and 13, said he was angry police didn’t inform the community sooner.

“I was very upset because my boys were biking around,” said Tom. “If I would have known that something like this happened I would have said no stay in the front yard.”

Dan Robins lives in the neighbourhood where the incident occurred and watched Sunday as the children’s mother left the house for a brief period, only to return to find her children dead.

Robins said it was only about 10 minutes between the time the woman found her children and the time the police arrived, so he said he doubts any suspect would have gotten far.

But while he was reluctant to criticize police, he said he wondered why they hadn’t put out an alert about Schoenborn.

“If there’s a guy running around with a knife, yeah, I’d definitely tell everyone to keep their eyes open and watch their kids and lock the doors,” he said Monday.

“They’ve got their own way of doing it so I’m not one to have a say, but yeah, I would have alerted the town.”

Mayor David Laird said it’s been a very traumatic incident for the community and he said the city supports the job the RCMP are doing.

“You have to give the RCMP the opportunity to do proper police investigation,” he said.

Laird said investigators’ jobs are made more difficult by reporters “getting names they shouldn’t have and interfering with the investigation.”

“We really support what the RCMP do. We all know it’s horrendous. I don’t think anyone of us would have liked to have gone into that house and start going through what they had to go through, then try and keep a mind set and move it forward into investigation.”