Inquest probes shooting of doomsday ‘prepper’
Squatter, daughter and six mean dogs illegally invaded cabin near Valemount
John Robert Buehler was looking for a place to wait for the end of the world with his 18-year-old daughter, Shanna, and he chose to hunker down in and around Valemount, B.C.
A doomsday “prepper” and endof-times prophet, Buehler moved further away from civilization and human contact each time he came in conflict with other people or the police. He was squatting in a remote trapper’s cabin with his daughter and six menacing German shepherds on Sept. 17, 2014, the day he was killed by police officers.
“People seemed to think he was one of those ‘sovereign man on the land’ types and were kind of dismissive,” said Laura Keil, publisher of the local Rocky Mountain Goat newspaper.
“I guess there are people like that everywhere, but maybe more around here because land is cheaper and there are hidden places where you can squat.”
A coroner’s inquest into Buehler’s death began Monday at the Prince George Courthouse.
The details of Buehler’s life and death are drawn from interviews conducted by Keil and published accounts of the incident.
The Buehlers arrived in Valemount in 2011 and rented a house, but Buehler had trouble holding a job and they ended up living in an RV at Camp Creek, 10 kilometres outside of town, an area used for horseback riding and cross-country skiing, according to a series of accounts by Keil.
“I think (Buehler) made a mistake thinking he was in the middle of nowhere,” Keil said. “For rural people, these places are in our backyard. We know them and we use them.”
In June 2014, Buehler had taken over the local recreation club’s picnic area and log cabin and had blocked a public trail, where he came into conflict with local residents.
“He had these riveting lightblue eyes that made you feel like you were staring into a soul,” Rene Nunweiler told the Rocky Mountain Goat.
Club members told Buehler that he couldn’t live there, but he politely refused to leave, and a few days later he unleashed his German shepherds on a pair of horseback riders, saying the dogs would kill them and their animals if they came back.
When the RCMP arrived, a chaotic scene ensued as Buehler used his dogs to keep officers at bay while Shanna screamed at him to surrender from the back of a squad car, according to Keil’s account.
Buehler did surrender after a four-hour standoff. After he was arrested, Mounties found several guns and thousands of bullets.
The next confrontation would not end so peacefully.
After his release, Buehler and his daughter set up camp even further into the woods, acquired more firearms, and eventually settled more than 50 kilometres out of town in a trapper’s cabin that would eventually be the scene of his death.
The cabin’s owner, Martin Balon, showed up late on the evening of Sept. 7 to find that his lock had been replaced. Buehler approached a gate with a flashlight in hand. Balon advised Buehler to leave and gave him a week to move.
When Balon returned, all his belongings had been thrown out of the cabin, Keil said.
“It was horrible for the owners of the cabin to have this happen at their place and all their things thrown down a bank,” she said. “It was a total invasion.”
Buehler had missed a court date days earlier, and due to his history of violence and reputation as a skilled marksman, RCMP called in the North District Emergency Response Team.
“There were armoured vehicles rolling down the road, there were helicopters, so people knew something big was going down,” Keil said.
The coroner’s inquest heard Monday that Buehler’s sister had called the Valemount RCMP as soon as she heard the news to warn police about what he was like.
“He is a risk to everyone,” a frantic-sounding Theresa Hebert said in a recording of that phone call. “My brother, John, for his whole life has had a history of violence.”
Asked by the Valemount RCMP officer she had been talking to if he ever received help for mental health issues, Hebert said their mother once had “forced the issue” and told him to get help. Buehler was subsequently diagnosed with manic depression, but he refused to take any of the medication prescribed to him.
“He’s like a ticking time bomb,” she said.
As officers approached, they found the last bridge on the road to the cabin smouldering from a fire.
Hunters escorted out of the area told the Goat that dozens of officers, some in camouflage, were “armed to the teeth.”
At the scene, sharpshooters could see John and Shanna, who had a rifle strapped to her back. Officers set up ambush points on the road, while six officers moved through the woods to the cabin.
The Buehlers left the cabin on ATVs and the officers were able to set up an ambush at the cabin. When the ATVs approached, a stun grenade was detonated and a beanbag was fired to disable Buehler. It missed, as did the second attempt.
Buehler was able to bring a rifle to bear on the officers, who fired their guns, knocking him down. Another round was fired when Buehler tried to aim again from the ground.
He died from his wounds. Shanna dropped her hands and turned when confronted and was hit by a non-lethal beanbag. After she jumped back up, she was shot by officers with rifles three times.
She begged officers to let her die, but survived her injuries.
B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office found that neither of the Buehlers had fired a shot in the confrontation.
“The way things went with (Balon), where he just walked up to the gate and talked to Buehler, was such a contrast to what happened when the police arrived and snuck up on them,” Keil said. “You just wonder if it could have been handled differently.”