Canadian police release timeline of 13-hour Nova Scotia massacre
Canadian authorities released an exhaustive account Friday of the country’s deadliest mass shooting, which spanned six communities and left at least 22 people dead.
The 13-hour massacre, which started late Saturday as a domestic dispute between 51-year-old gunman Gabriel Wortman and his girlfriend, began in Portapique, a rural community in Nova Scotia where police and residents said he lived part-time.
“She did manage to escape,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Darren Campbell told reporters at a press conference, referring to Wortman’s girlfriend. “That could well have been the catalyst of events.”
Thirteen bodies were found inside and outside of homes in Portapique, authorities said. Wortman, who police believe acted alone, had a pistol and several longer barrel firearms, Campbell said.
Several residences were also found on fire, including Wortman’s, amid the carnage. His girlfriend hid in the woods overnight until she called the police at about 6:30 a.m. Sunday to report that Wortman was driving a mock police cruiser while wearing a law-enforcement uniform, Campbell said.
Wortman, who owned a denture practice that had been closed for much of the past month because of the coronavirus, then traveled to small communities in Nova Scotia — Wentworth, Debert and Shubenacadie — to continue his killing and arson spree, police said.
Investigators confirmed Wortman killed victims in Milford and Enfield, where he was shot dead by police just before noon Sunday outside a gas station, Global News reports.
Authorities said Wortman also shot two police officers, one fatally, as well as a witness who arrived at one scene. He then drove to a house and killed another woman he knew before stealing her car, Campbell said.
Wortman then went to a gas station in Enfield, where he was killed by an officer at 11:26 a.m. Sunday, some 13 hours after the attacks began.
With Post wires