Late February Massacre (Canadian-American War of 1975)

This was part of the Canadian-American War of 1975.

It was mid-afternoon on February 27th, 1976. Local Canadian Radicals known as "Beaver's Teeth" were angry at the fact that the Americans had taken over their home city of Winnipeg the Same day. The leader, Buck Cooper, said that the Canadians will have their revenge. Him and around three hundred members of the Beaver's Teeth and citizens of Winnipeg marched on the town hall, which had an American Flag draped over it and dozens of soldiers stood outside. Buck Cooper brought a mic with him and began shouting chants like "F*ck the Yankees" and "Incestual Rednecks" and other hate slurs to get the Americans riled up. Most of the Beaver's Teeth members had rifles slung around their backs. They refused to tolerate this American takeover and began pulling out their rifles. Sergeant Brent Darby, one of the American soldiers standing on the town hall, remembered the incident.

"It was chaos. These locals kept protesting us and called us such mean things. Around a half-hour later, one of the men took out his rifle that was slung around his back, I was scared then." -Sergeant Brent Darby, recalling the incident, 1994.

Sergeant Brent Darby was the man who took the first shot at the fired-up Canadian who had his rifle aimed at Darby.

"I had no choice, he was going to kill me. This was do or die."- Brent Darby, 1994.

After the local Canadian was shot dead by Sergeant Darby, the rest of the Canadians pulled out their rifles. Buck Cooper's right-hand man, Robert Docker, recalls this moment.

"After the soldier shot my friend Dan, we knew there was some serious crap about to go down." -Robert Docker looking back on the massacre, 2003.

Brent Darby took cover behind the town hall sign, it became riddled with bullets from the local extremists.

"Members of my squadron were going down like flys, I did not know what to do." -Brent Darby 1994

The massacre raged on. The locals kept firing at the soldiers. In the first 15 minutes, 7 soldiers were dead and a dozen were wounded. Brent was one of the wounded.

"I had been shot in the arm by one of the men. It hurt like hell. I fell back to cover and began trying to patch my own wound with my free arm." -Brent Darby, 1994

Robert Docker fired upon the American soldiers. The fighting grew more intense. Local American MP's started to show up at the scene from behind. The locals were ambushed. The locals fired upon the MP's police cars and they began to fall. One car even caught on fire and blew up. Around 5 MP's died in the fighting.

Around 6 PM, five hours after the fighting, the Locals gave up. Brent Darby remembers the aftermath too well, and it would haunt him forever.

"Buck Cooper, the local bastard, charged at city hall attempting to retake Winnipeg, and there was no way in HELL I was gonna let that happen. I grabbed him by the arm and thrusted him to the ground. He was a big guy, so I was scared he was gonna kill me first. I took out my M1911 and he slapped it out of my hands. My squadmate, Staff Sergeant Doug Macker, threw me his revolver with one round left and I shot Buck in the head. He shivered and tumbled down the stairs, dead instantly." -Brent Darby 1994

And with Buck's death came the end of the massacre. 2 Dozen soldiers and 3 Local extremists were killed in the fighting. Robert Docker was sentenced to 15 years in prison before being released in 1989 for good behavior. He has since turned his life around and has volunteered in nursing homes, soup kitchens, and is a successful salesman for a local Winnipeg company. Brent Darby left the army shortly after the Canadian-American War of 1975 and has a career in finance.