Rookie Mountie nabs fugitive killer

The fugitive was one of the U.S.’ most-wanted criminals.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A rookie with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is credited with capturing a U.S. fugitive killer and three-time escapee who has spent two decades dodging and taunting law enforcement.

Mountie Stephane Gagnon, who had been out of the RCMP’s training academy just six weeks, tackled and arrested Richard McNair on Thursday after an attempted traffic stop and foot chase in Campbellton, New Brunswick, about 100 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border, Inspector Roland Wells said.

McNair told the young officer: “You have captured a big fish here — you guys will be on the news tonight.”

“I don’t know if he [Gagnon] realizes the significance of the arrest,” Wells said. “There are those that go 20 to 30 years — or their entire careers — without making a high-profile arrest.”

“I did only my job,” Gagnon said Friday.

McNair, 48, was convicted of killing Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn., in November 1987 during a burglary at a Minot grain elevator. Richard Kitzman, an elevator employee, was shot three times but survived.

McNair’s crimes brought him a life sentence. His escapes landed him on a list of the nation’s 15 most-wanted criminals.

Gagnon was on patrol with training officer Nelson Levesque when the two noticed McNair in a stolen van. McNair sped away in the van when the officers attempted to pull him over, but hit a dead end, the officers said.

McNair fled the vehicle and was tackled by Gagnon after a quarter-mile foot chase down a dirt road and through a wooded area.

McNair fought being handcuffed, but Gagnon “applied pressure points to make him comply,” Wells said. “At that time we didn’t know who he was — we thought he may have been a suspect in tobacco smuggling or drug smuggling.”

McNair immediately told officers his true identity but later signed his fingerprints with an alias, “Troy Snyder,” Wells said. Canadian authorities also found a bogus Alaska driver’s license with the phony name and McNair’s picture on it.

“We believe he produced it himself,” Wells said.