He was just 31 years old and Ontario Provincial Police Const. Rick Hopkins had it all: a great career with the OPP, an amazing wife and healthy kids he adored and who adored him back.
He was an amazing cop and an even better hockey coach, and had championship trophies to prove it.
Then, with one gunshot, it was all gone. His life was taken from him, his family, his police service, his province and country.
The family thought when the husband and father’s killer was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting murder it meant life in prison.
“The truth of it is it’s the victims who get the life sentence,” the slain constable’s son Steve Hopkins said Friday. “There are all kinds of opportunities for the killer but none for the family.”
Hopkins was shot to death May, 9, 1982, while responding to a call in the Ontario town of Arthur, west of Orangeville.
Steve was just 6 years old when his father was gunned down in cold blood. His younger brother Dave, who went on to become a police officer in Ontario himself, was just 4.
“The thing I remember the most about that day was all the media at our house and the police coming and going,” Steve recalled. “My brother was just 4 and has no memory of our dad. I remember him as being happy and him sitting with his feet up on the table, relaxing.”
Convicted cop killer Jeffrey Scott Breese stole their dad away and gave them a childhood without a father. He also made their mother Ada a widow.
“It has not been easy and it does not get easier,” said Steve.
Especially not when a phone call tells them their father’s killer is up for full parole in British Columbia next month.
“It was very nonchalant. They said there is a private hearing in a boardroom that will decide if (Breese) will get full parole,” Steve said. “They said he has done his time.
“They couldn’t even tell me the date. It’s ridiculous.”
The family’s goal now is to make sure if the killer does get released, there is one stipulation.
“We don’t want him to be able to come to Ontario,” Steve said. “The last time they let him out to see an ailing parent in the hospital, he was just four blocks from my mother’s house. We don’t want to run into him.”
The Ontario Provincial Police Association agrees.
“The possibility of family members encountering the man convicted of killing their loved one is unacceptable,” OPPA president Rob Stinson wrote, adding the association’s position is “full parole is not appropriate for an offender convicted of murdering a police officer in the line of duty.”
The OPPA also called for a “full hearing” that allows the victim’s family to participate.
The Parole Board of Canada says they are legally unable to comment on specific cases.
“Information about an offender, such as whether or not they have made an application for conditional release or hearing dates/scheduled reviews, are not generally disclosed by the Parole Board of Canada,” spokesman Lisa Saether wrote in an email.
However this process unfolds, the widow and children should not be left in the dark on the release of their loved one’s killer. It’s obscene and must be corrected immediately.
Whatever is decided, the family needs to have officials look them in the eye and explain the rationale for any decision made.
After all, said Steve, two previous releases of Breese resulted in parole violations that landed him back behind bars. Now they worry about public safety and also coming face to face with their loved one’s killer, who is now 58.
“We just want some respect,” Steve said. “That the killer has rights but the victims have no rights is appalling.”
Post a Comment