An exceptional police officer, a mentor paramedic and an incredible prankster, is how friends and colleagues are remembering Const. David Matthew Wynn.
Wynn, 42, was one of two St. Albert RCMP officers seriously injured during a shooting at Apex Casino on Saturday morning.
Wynn was shot in the head.
As of press time, Wynn remains in hospital in Edmonton. He is not expected to survive his injuries. His family, including wife Shelly MacInnis-Wynn and their three sons, said their last goodbyes Monday night.
Wynn is being remembered far beyond the boundaries of St. Albert.
Prior to joining the RCMP in 2009, Wynn worked as a paramedic for Emergency Health Services in Bridgewater, N.S. from 1996 to 2009.
It’s been a tough week in the town of 8,400, says Tim Conrad, who worked in fire services and alongside Wynn on numerous calls over six years.
“They’re trying to focus on all the good that Dave brought to the world,” he says.
Former colleagues praise Wynn as a caring and compassionate clinician to his patients and a mentor willing to take new paramedics under his wing.
It has been reported that Wynn as one of the first responders on scene at the Swissair Flight 111 crash in 1998.
“He was a tough guy out on a scene, he was very serious about his job, but he was always wanting to help wherever possible,” says Conrad. “He was somebody I learned a lot from in my early time in the fire service.”
Jonathan Pippy, operations supervisor for Emergency Health Services western region, met Wynn in 2001.
“He is a friend and we shared a lot of experiences and calls together along the south shore of Nova Scotia,” he states.
“He was well respected by his colleagues and was very active in the community.”
Wynn also worked and volunteered as a first aid instructor.
First responders in Bridgewater – paramedics, fire fighters and police – are a tight-knit group, says Bridgewater Police Chief John Collyer.
“I could tell from the first time I met him, he had a bit of a Cape Breton accent,” he says as a native of Cape Breton himself.
Wynn was instrumental in automated external defibrillator devices being used by police officers. The Bridgewater detachment was the first one in Nova Scotia to deploy AEDs in their police cruisers in 2003/2004.
“He did all the training voluntarily and helped guide us to decide what device we should buy. He was our subject matter expert,” says Collyer.
When Wynn decided to join the RCMP, several members of the first responder community served as his references.
“He was at the point in his life where he was looking for a new challenge,” says Collyer. “I knew (the family) left here sadly, but it was a whole new ball game going into the RCMP.”
Although Wynn was serious about his job, he liked his practical jokes, says Conrad.
Many photographs of Wynn capture his “sly little grin.”
“You just know it was him coming back from doing something … relishing in his head before someone discovered the practical joke he’d left behind,” he says.
One of Wynn’s go-to practical jokes was to put peanut butter or another sticky substance underneath the handle of a vehicle door.
Once he brought in a fake security camera, which would light up when motion was detected. He convinced all the emergency workers – even the boss – that the “big guys were keeping an eye on things.”
“He got us all in on it,” says Conrad. “He would do stuff with our sirens too. Nothing was safe.”
“I’d forgot how elaborate he could be. It was just fantastic.”
“He was an incredible prankster,” says Conrad. “I would say probably one of the best I ever met.”
– with files from Victoria Paterson
