Hon. Paula Simons: Honourable senators, last Thursday, just before 1 a.m., two young Edmonton police constables, Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan, responded to a call about a domestic dispute at an apartment complex in west central Edmonton.

When the constables arrived at the building, they were met by a 55-year-old woman, who told them that she was having problems with her 16-year-old son. The boy had no criminal record and no outstanding warrants. But police had been called to the home before to deal with the boy on a mental health call.

While all domestic disturbance calls can be volatile, there was no indication that this call was particularly high risk.

No one was prepared for what came next. According to the Edmonton Police Service, Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan were shot by the teen multiple times before they reached the apartment door. Neither constable had a chance to pull a weapon. The mother then attempted to disarm her son. He shot and wounded her grievously, before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

It is a horror that has rocked my city and my own neighbourhood. I walked my dog right past this building just a few hours before the shooting.

As a journalist, I covered the murders of the four RCMP officers who were ambushed by James Roszko at Rochfort Bridge in 2005. I also covered the 2015 death of Constable David Wynn, the St. Albert RCMP officer who was shot and killed by Shawn Rehn. But Roszko and Rehn were dangerous men, hard men, with serious criminal records. There is something so much more disturbing, more poignant, more painful, more pointless about the deaths of two brave young officers at the hands of a mentally ill child, who is now dead himself.

There are so many questions. How did this troubled 16-year-old get access to a gun in the first place? Did his family receive the support they needed from the child welfare system and the mental health care system? Did Constables Ryan and Jordan have all the information they needed about the boy’s mental health history before they arrived? And do police officers in general have the training and support they need to deal with mental health calls?

For now, we have no answers, only our shared anguish. At this very moment, thousands of Edmontonians are lining the streets of south Edmonton as the bodies of these two brave constables are moved from the medical examiner’s office to the funeral home.

On Monday, Edmontonians and police officers from across Canada will come together to mourn and to honour the lives of Brett Ryan and Travis Jordan in a public ceremony at Rogers Place. It will be an opportunity for community catharsis. But the private pain for all three of these grieving families will endure for many years to come.