Death toll from Canada’s worst mass shooting reaches 19, number expected to rise

The death toll from the worst mass shooting in Canadian history rose to 19, including a police officer and the gunman, Canadian police said on Monday, adding that they expected to uncover more fatalities from the weekend massacre in Nova Scotia.

The gunman, who at one point masqueraded as a policeman and also painstakingly disguised his car to look like a police cruiser, shattered the peace of rural communities in the Atlantic province during a 12-hour rampage that started late on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday.

“We’re relatively confident we’ve identified all the crime scenes,” Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told reporters on Monday, but said that fires set at some of those sites, mostly residences, made the search for other victims difficult.

“We believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes which burnt to the ground,” Leather said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the gunman as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman. Police said they had yet to determine a motive. Wortman was also reportedly obsessed with policing, having refurbished several old squad cars, and struggled with alcoholism.

Neighbors also told The Globe and Mail newspaper that Wortman set fire to homes and shot residents as they ran out.

An acquaintance said Wortman drove to his house in a mock squad car, wearing a police uniform, and banged on the door clutching a rifle and a pistol.

“He wasn’t killing enemies, he was killing his friends,” said the man, who hid with his wife and called the police. “He was trying to beat down our door. It was beyond terrifying.”

Wortman, still posing as a policeman, later stopped a vehicle near Debert and shot the occupants. Two vehicles were also lit on fire on Highway 102, according to police.

Police also said they had ended the threat posed by Wortman, who was dead, but they would not confirm a report by the CTV network that the RCMP had shot him.

Leather also said the suspect’s ability to move around the province was “greatly benefited” by the fact that he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car and that he was wearing a police uniform that was either a very good fabrication or an actual uniform.”

An RCMP tactical team, a dog unit and officers from other police agencies eventually caught up with Wortman — who had swapped cars — at a gas station in Enfield, near Halifax airport.

The gunman exchanged fire with police, who “were involved in terminating the threat,” Leather said.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Sunday there was no indication at that time that the killings were terrorism-related. Police also said there was no apparent link between Wortman and at least some of his victims.

Lucki said the investigation was going to be very long and complicated, adding the suspect was not well-known to police.

Among the victims so far identified were a veteran constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nurse, an elementary school teacher, prison guards and a retired firefighter.

Another RCMP officer was wounded and was recovering at home, the police union said.

Reacting to the crime, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the killings “happened in small towns: Portapique, Truro, Milford and Enfield, places where people have deep roots, places where people know their neighbors and look out for one another.”

“Now these communities are in mourning and Canada is in mourning with them,” Trudeau said.

(Source: Agencies)