Winnipeg police forces pay tribute to RCMP officer killed on-duty

Dozens of Winnipeg police officers and cadets gathered outside the RCMP headquarters in Winnipeg to pay tribute to RCMP Const. Allan Poapst who died on-duty Friday.

Winnipeg's police forces briefly pulled away from the front lines on Saturday night to honour an RCMP officer killed on-duty in a fatal highway crash on Friday.

Const. Allan Poapst was five days away from marking 13 years with the RCMP when he died Friday in a collision with a pickup truck on the city's Perimeter Highway.

A one-minute 57 second-long video posted to Facebook captures a sea of red and blue illuminating the frozen streets outside the RCMP Headquarters at 1091 Portage Avenue where Winnipeg officers and cadets gathered to show support for their federal counterparts.

About 50 law enforcement vehicles lined up bumper-to-bumper in front of a monument dedicated to officers who lost their lives in the line of duty to pay tribute to the fallen Mountie, Winnipeg police said.

“Just to kind of honour him and show that we're all in this together,” Const. Rob Carver said.

“I think we all share it, whenever anything like this happens,” he said.

A barking dog and passing cars are the only sounds breaking the silence in the nearly two-minute video as a camera operator walks between two rows of marked and unmarked police cruisers flashing overhead lights.

WATCH Winnipeg police pay tribute to RCMP Const. Allan Poapst:

Carver said all available officers broke away from their regular duties on Saturday night to pay tribute. He said the loss of an officer ripples through hundreds of other front-line workers who risk their lives in the line of duty.

“I think we all really bond at times like that,” he said.

Uniformed members of the Winnipeg police and cadets can be seen standing together in front of the RCMP building, with clouds of condensation hovering above them as they breathe the cold air in and out.

Lives on the line

Carver said traffic-related incidents are the number one cause of death of on-duty officers.

“We get into this job knowing that there are risks,” Carver said. “The biggest risk for law enforcement we know across North America, even though we train for all of these violent situations, is traffic accidents.”

“It's tragic. It's just the way it is … this one was particularly unforeseen and tragic, but that's the risk. We do it all the time.”

Carver said all first responders are in the same boat.

“We all feel it when someone in our profession is killed,” he said, which is why officers working the Saturday night shift decided to round up the troops to recognize their fallen member.

“I was very moved by it,” Carver said.

Comments posted online echoed that sentiment.

“It touched a lot of people,” Carver said. “We hope it touched our colleagues at the RCMP. That's what it was meant to do.”

The video scans to the RCMP monument with bouquets of brightly coloured flowers at its foot. Sirens mark the end of the video, as a procession of police cruisers dispatch from the scene.

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Honouring officer killed

Poapst, 49, will be remembered as the proud father of three teenage girls, and as an avid fan of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Winnipeg Jets, the commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP said at a news conference on Saturday.

“He was a dedicated officer who worked hard to serve Manitobans,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said on Saturday, at times speaking through tears.

“Allan is gone, but he will never be forgotten by the many officers who worked by his side, and by the people of Manitoba who he so proudly served,” she said.

“I do want to say we're grateful to the WPS for their outstanding support during this tragic time.”

Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP are investigating the cause of the crash. No updates were available.

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