OPP's mental health support team saved former officer's life
MIDLAND — Retired OPP constable Stephen Roden has had days where he couldn’t see a way out of the blackness. Unnoticed behind them, a man entered the bar, calmly walked up to Coffin, put a handgun to the back of his head, and pulled the trigger. Coffin, 32, the father of three young children, slumped to the floor in a pool of blood. The killer, Allan MacDonald, 52, walked away. Bewildered, Roden went after him but was met with a gun pointed at his face. Roden raced back to his partner, tried in vain to push his finger into the bullet hole to stop the blood that pumped like a garden hose. Tears flow to his eyes when he recalls the details. Roden eventually moved on to work on the OPP trauma support team alongside Vince Hawkes — now the OPP commissioner.
