Man killed by Saskatoon Police on Oct. 27 also wounded in separate February police shooting
Last Thursday night is not the first time this year Saskatoon Police shot Ronnie Glen Herman, but this time the 36-year-old from La Loche, Sask., died.
Family say Herman is the man police fatally shot on Oct. 27 in a house on Avenue E N. Police did not release his name.
Rona Clark Herman also confirmed her brother Ronnie is the man who Saskatoon police shot in the arm on Feb. 23. Her brother, armed with a replica handgun and a machete, had rushed an officer outside a house on Avenue L S.
The weapons, threats and drug charges from that confrontation were working through the courts when Ronnie Glen Herman came back onto the police radar Thursday.
"The Guns and Gangs Unit became aware that a 36-year-old male who was wanted by La Loche RCMP was in the 1300 block of Avenue E N. and was armed with a gun," Police Chief Troy Cooper wrote in a statement on Friday.
"The male was in breach of release conditions and had removed his electronic monitoring device."
People living in the houses near and beside where Herman died say dozens of plainclothes and uniform police with guns drawn converged on a two-storey house across from the Mayfair elementary school around 5:45 p.m. on Thursday.
Witnesses say police ran through yards and jumped fences and decks, squaring off with Herman both inside and outside the corner house. The neighbours heard shouting, and the sound of multiple gunshots.
Police said in a news release that they confronted a suspect in the home before police fatally shot him. No police or bystanders were hurt.
The older neighbourhood was busy at the time of the shooting — parent-teacher interviews had just started at the school and kids were out in the playground.
At daybreak Friday, the police rescue truck still remained parked half on the street and half on the side lawn of the house.
Team to investigate timeline
The precise sequence of how Saskatoon police came to shoot Ronnie Herman, and the connection to a standoff earlier the same day on Avenue Q, is going to be pieced together by the Regina Police Service and the province's Serious Incident Response Team.
The public information available now on Ronnie Herman through court records, police news releases and years of media reports include many violent offences.
In 2009, when he was 22, Herman pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the beating death of a teen in a La Loche, Sask., parking lot.
In 2021, La Loche RCMP asked for the public's help to find Herman.
"Ronald Herman is wanted by police and has several charges for his arrest including assault, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and failure to comply with probation. These offences were reported to have occurred in La Loche, Sask., on Dec. 25, 2020," RCMP said in its appeal for help at the time.
A report from June, prepared by a Saskatoon prosecutor for one of Herman's court appearances on his February charges, shows a history of violence .
"The accused has 15 convictions for failing to comply with conditions (release and probation) and one conviction for obstruction. His pending charges include two counts of breach of probation," the report said.
"Convictions for violence: six assaults, two assaults causing bodily harm, three weapons offences, one utter threats, one arson and one manslaughter. The pending charges again involve weapons culminating in a police-involved shooting."
Herman was released on numerous conditions, including to not possess a firearm, and was ordered to wear an electronic bracelet. He was scheduled to return to court Nov. 10.
His family in La Loche, Sask., is making funeral arrangements.
