The murder of Sandwich West Township police constable Robert Carrick remains a painful memory 48 years after a routine domestic violence call went terribly wrong.
Earlier this week, the town of LaSalle, of which Sandwich West became a part of in 1991, renamed a portion of Normandy St. in LaSalle "Robert Carrick Way," and a tunnel on the nearby Herb Gray Pkwy. has also been named after him.
LaSalle Mayor Ken Antaya remembers the tragedy as a young man just beginning his career with the municipality.
"It happened ten days before I started here," says Antaya. "I was an employee for Sandwich West Township. It was a terrible day."
The memory of that day in 1969 has not gone away for Antaya or those who were working for the township at the time. Part of that was the shock of it happening in a small, close-knit community.
"We've never forgotten," says Antaya. "There's a deep, deep scar in this community based on that. You expect that sometimes in an urban setting or a large city. But in a sleepy little town, it was something that was kind of shocking at the time, and still to this day is something that is hard to believe it happened here."
Constable Carrick, just 23, had been on the Sandwich West Township Police Service for three years when he arrived at a Sprucewood Ave. home on August 23, 1969. Amidst the screaming and crying from a woman, child, and babysitter in the home, Carrick was able to guide them to safety behind his police car. Carrick then found himself exchanging gunfire with William Roy Rosik, who had been threatening the other people in the house with a gun. The constable went back to his cruiser to retrieve his weapon from the trunk and was killed with a fatal shot of buckshot to the head.
The shootout continued with the woman, child and babysitter cowering in horror behind the cruiser.
Before long, almost every township officer was on the scene, along with Windsor police. Another Sandwich West Township officer, Bob Ross, and a Windsor officer, Alfred Oakley, were seriously wounded in the shootout.
Before long, Rosik surrendered upon realizing he was hopelessly outnumbered.
Rosik was later convicted of Carrick's murder, but he avoided the death penalty and was released from prison after ten years.
Carrick died with only two shifts remaining on the force. He had planned to relocate to Florida and be certified in a hard-hat diving school, eventually pursuing a career in oceanography.
Antaya says the dedication at Town Hall Sunday helped recognize an important, but a painful chapter in the municipality's history.
"Our own councillor Mike Akpata was the one who spearheaded this," says Antaya. "We're grateful that he did. It was a very nice event; it was a solemn event. It was something that recognized his contributions to the community and what it meant to serve."
