By: Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

MONCTON, N.B. _ Patrick Tardif was doing what he normally does on a summer night.

It only seemed like he was at it eight days a week since he was coaching four different teams.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal was hitting ground balls as his New Brunswick Selects U17 were working out at Willie Jardine Field in Miramichi on Wednesday, June 4, 2014. Like all good baseball men -- and Tardif is a dedicated baseball man -- he had his phone turned off. Game time was approaching. No distractions.

Tardif (Dieppe, NB) will manage New Brunswick against Prince Edward Island in the opening game of the Baseball Canada Cup on Wednesday morning at Ross Hennigar park in Fort McMurray, Alta. The coach has two sons -- both two way men -- left-handed pitcher and outfielder Dominic Tardif, 18 and left-handed pitcher/first baseman Joshua Tardif, 16 on his provincial team.

Before flying west Tardif looked back to that awful summer night of 2014 and ahead. The former New Brunswick coach of the year was hitting ground ball when assistant coach Jason Buckle came over and said with a painful look on his face “turn on your phone ... turn on your phone ... RIGHT NOW.” Buckle had received a phone call from his wife that the office was trying to reach Tardif.

Tardif did as ordered and discovered that in Moncton a horror was unfolding ... a man was shooting Mounties. Son Dominic was not there as he was in Sports-Etudes de Mortagne in Boucherville, Que. and pitching for the Rive-Sud Patriotes school program.

Tardif flipped his car keys to Buckle.

“I figured he should drive, I knew I’d be busy,” said Tardif, who was on the phone during the 90-minute drive to find who knows what. 

The timeline of the manhunt shows the initial call to police about an armed man in camouflage in the north end of the city of Moncton came at 7:18 pm. 

Within the hour Georges-L. Dumont University Hospital declared a Code Orange meaning it was expecting multiple casualties in the emergency room. In less than an hour five RCMP constables had been shot.  

The Codiac RCMP detachment where Tardif is stationed searched the rest of Wednesday and all day Thursday. 

Tardif’s ex-wife Lynn Saulnier, also a proud member of the force, worked the man hunt Wednesday and Thursday as well.

The RCMP tweeted for people to stay indoors: first the Hildegard/Ryan Road area, then Trinity/Plaza Blvd. area and then expanded to Moncton Coliseum, Worthington Ave., Preston Cres. Elmhurst Dr. The message was “there’s a shooter in woods near Pinehurst.” 

Pedestrians and motorists were asked to stay away from the area of the search; public transit was suspended; schools, government offices, stores, and businesses were closed in a scene which reminded people of the lock down after the Boston Marathon bombing. Monctonians left their porch lights on during the lock down.

Moncton residents were instructed to lock doors, leave on exterior lights and refrain from broadcasting police movements on social media sites. The suspect was spotted in vicinity of Mountain Road and Gorge Road. 

Tardif was told that Const. Douglas Larche, 40 was one of the three fatally shot officers. Tardif and Larche had been detectives together. 

Const. David Ross, 32 and Const. Fabrice Georges Gevaudan, 45 were also shot.

On Friday, June 6 at 12:10 a.m. the a man was arrested without incident by RCMP mounties from Saint John, who had taken over the search, while the brave Codiac men caught a few hours of sleep. They found Bourque in a residential area near Wheeler Boulevard and Mountain Road ending the 30 hour manhunt. 

“Superintendant Marlene Snowman phoned me about 2 am woke me up and said ‘we got him,’” Tardif said. “I appreciated the call.”

That Friday night, Tardif and several co-workers went to St-Louis Wings Bar and Grill.

“It was to let our guard down from this gruesome experience,” Tardif said. The Blue Jays were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. “The game was on the big screen and when our anthem started, everyone at our table at the same reflex. We all got up, stood at attention, sang the anthem and openly cried like little kids, all our emotions came pouring out at that moment ... it was followed by a lot of hugs from colleagues and members of the public. 

“The support we received from the public was amazing.” 

The two injured RCMP officers Const. Darlene Goguen and Const. Eric Dubois were treated and released from hospital.

And then came the funerals. 

One in Ottawa. One in Regina, where all three men had trained. And a regimental funeral June 10 at the Moncton Coliseum, with close to 3,000 police officers and other mourners.

Lynn Saulnier, Gevaudan’s supervisor, placed the Stetson atop his casket.

Tardif was a member of Larche’s honor guard.  

The suspect, entered guilty pleas to the three counts of first-degree murder and also the two counts of attempted murder and on Aug. 8. He was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 75 years on Oct. 27,  

 

* * *

How does one find the time to coach four teams ... even with an eight-day week? Tardif coached in 2014:

_ The Matadors de Mathieu-Martin who won the provincial high school championship for the first time since 1975.

_ The New Brunswick 17U selects.

_ The New Brunswick entry into the midget nationals where they earned a bronze medal at Sherbrooke, Que.

_ And the bantam triple-A Dieppe Cardinals, who were New Brunswick provincial champs and Atlantic champs.

He started last year coaching five teams -- he also had the New Brunswick 18U team which went to the Canada Cup. In Julue of last season he was named Detachment Commander of Richibucto, 40 mins from Moncton,  as the Sergeant.

This year rules changed -- like Texas in the old days when they sent out one Texas Ranger for one riot. Baseball New Brunswick decided no one could coach another team if coaching Selects. So he is only guiding the Selects this season. 

He will go the U18 in Sherbrooke, Que. as Chef de Mission for Metro Mudcats, players he has coached since 2011.

A native of Brossard, Que. Tardif pitched with the St-Hubert Diplomats in the Quebec Junior League. 

 

* * *

Dominic Tardif, now 18, is a left-handed pitcher and plays centre. He went 11-1 combined in 2015. He is 6-1 this year with New Brunswick Selects and Metro Mudcats. 

At last year’s Canada Cup in Saskatoon, he pitched 6 2/3 innings allowing three runs on six hits and four walks, while fanning four in a 3-1 loss to BC. With the bat, Dom hit .353 (6-for-17) with a double and two RBIs. At last year’s national juniors in Magog, he pitched a scoreless inning in a 5-3 win over Newfoundland striking out a pair. At the plate he hit .263 (5-for-19) with a double and four RBIs.

At the 18U nationals in Magog, Dom worked four innings allowing four runs - three earned -- on six walks and four hits in a 9-8 loss to PEI. He was hitless in six at-bats.

At the 2014 Canada Cup in Saskatoon, he suffered the loss in a 10-3 defeat to Manitoba and worked a scoreless inning in a 5-2 win against PEI. He had allowed walked four and allowed six hits in 5 1/3 innings. And with the bat he hit .353 (6-for-17) with a double and two RBIs. At the 2014 national juniors in Magog, he pitched in one game allowing four hits and six walks, while striking out two. He was hitless in six at-bats.

At the 2013 bantam nationals in Vaughan, Dom took the loss in a 5-4 setback to Nova Scotia. He appeared in two games allowing five walks and hits in five innings, while whiffing five. At the plate he hit .412 (7-for-17) with a double and one RBI.

He is headed for the ABC in Montreal next month.

 

* * *

Three days after the shootings there was a ball game. Of course. As the home team, St. John wanted to cancel the game out of respect to Tardif and all that Moncton had gone through.

“Baseball was very helpful, even though St. John wanted to cancel, I requested we play as I needed to be at ball field with my players doing what I love,” Tardif explained. “Saint John had a minute of silence for our heroes and presented me with a thank you card ... whoof! I am tearing up just thinking about that gesture, very classy move and it was nice to play baseball.

“Baseball is definitely my escape from everything I deal with at work.”

 

* * *

Joshua Tardif, 16, is a left-handed pitcher and plays first base. 

A year ago, he batted .429 (3-for-7) with a double and three RBIs at the 2015 bantam nationals in Vaughan. On the mound he was 0-2 -- losing 6-2 to Ontario and 10-0 to Quebec -- with a 1.00 ERA (one earned run in seven innings) with four walks and 10 strikeouts.

At the 2013 Atlantic peewee championships in at Fredericton, Joshua had one of his better pitched games working for the host team against Nova Scotia’s Jaden Griffin. Joshua pitched five scoreless innings walking four and allowing four hits, fanning three in a 2-0 loss. He also pitched in a 19-9 win over Nova Scotia and an 8-7 victory against PEI. At the plate, he hit .545 (6-for-11) with two doubles and two RBIs.

Josh off to the Vauxhall Acadmey to pitch for coach Les McTavish and the Jets this fall.

 

* * *

This summer on June 4, the second anniversary, wives and families stood alongside the Petitcodiac River in Moncton, where RCMP constables Doug Larche Dave Ross and Fabrice Gevaudan were honoured with three life-sized bronze statues.

Morgan MacDonald, the Newfoundland-based artist created the monument and wanted to respect the legacy and memory of the three men. Angela Gevaudan, Rachael Ross and Nadine Larche were there with their children and spoke, along with New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant and George LeBlanc, former Moncton mayor. The men are wearing different uniforms

Larche was in the red serge, while imprints of his sneakers and running medals are at the base of his statue, along with ballet slippers for his daughters. 

Gevaudan in working patrol uniform, as imprints of challenge coins he earned as a member of the underwater recovery team, his wrist watch was set to the time of the shooting and there is a family photo inside Gevaudan’s hat.  

Ross in the uniform of a dog master and at the base of the statue are footprints of Ross’s wife, their children and a bear paw print since Ross was a “Papa Bear” and Danny the dog’s paw prints.

A series of maple leaves cast with 1,500 thumb prints of citizens and school children surround the memorial.

Tardif had a doubleheader that Saturday the day of the dedication. Of course there is always a game during the summer.

“I went after our doubleheader in Moncton, with Joshua,” Tardic said. “It was very humbling, emotions were all over the place: pride, sadness, anger.

“I was closest with Cst. Doug Larche who worked with me and I couldn’t stop thinking about moments we spent together at work. Doug, Fab and Dave were solid police officers and people.”