Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield
(The episode aired jan 7, 2021)
For most of the thirteen-hour crime spree, Wortman was driving a replica RCMP cruiser and wearing an RCMP uniform. On December 4, 2020, three people, including Wortman’s partner, were charged with supplying him with ammunition later used in the attacks
Many questions remain about how the RCMP responded to the situation, and whether enough was done to protect the community. In one case, we show the RCMP was told of the presence of the shooter in a police cruiser hours before they acknowledged knowing this information. The piece explores the red flags police knew about with respect to the shooter, and presents a critical analysis of what went wrong on that April weekend.
Police were criticized for not using Alert Ready to warn the public about the attacks, as well as not responding to reports of Wortman’s behaviour and previous acts of violence. An investigation into law enforcement’s response to the rampage, including the decision not to use Alert Ready, was launched.A public inquiry into the law enforcement response was declared on July 28, 2020 following escalating criticism of the investigation’s lack of transparency
For most of the thirteen-hour crime spree, Wortman was driving a replica RCMP cruiser and wearing an RCMP uniform. On December 4, 2020, three people, including Wortman’s partner, were charged with supplying him with ammunition later used in the attacks.
how is he not a red flag?
This i s a series of 22 homicides, they failed to give the public the information they needed to stay safe .they failed at that.
The attacks are the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where 14 women were killed On May 1, in the wake of the attacks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following through on a 2019 campaign promise, announced an immediate ban on some 1,500 makes and models of “military-grade assault-style” weapons, including two of the five guns used in the attacks. The ban included the Ruger Mini-14, which Wortman obtained illegally within Canada, while the other four guns he used included a stolen pistol from an RCMP officer who he killed and three guns obtained illegally from the US
Portapique nova scotia.it was on this road that the largest mass shooting in canadian history began. and yet all these months later . there are still questions.what did the RCMP know about the killer what did it do to stop him .? this is the story of 13 hours terrible hours that no one in this provence will ever forget . this is the fifth estate.
Portapique is nova scotia cottage country.nestled on the shores of the bay of funding a quiet place.
but on the night of april 16th portapicque was on fire, there were gunshots and soon accounts were circulating on facebook.
tyler blair have a lot of friends that live down the port Portapique area. and they said there’s large fire over the tree line and they heard it was possible shooting .so ,tyler didn´t think anything of it at first. then he heard that it was on Portapique beach road.
portapique beach road is just around the corner from where tyler blairs’s father greg lived.
Greg lived with his wife jamei and two younger sons, their neighbor was a man
named gabriel wartman.adventurous by profession to his neighbors in portapique
wartman was an exentric, known to have guns and a temper ,that nigth he was on a rampage.
Tyler believed that his father was outside at the time when gabriel came in and tyler think a few words were said and they heard greg yell ” what the fuck arge you doung with a gun and then he shot tyler´s father , that’s when jamie ran back into the door and got them and pushed them down the hallway and they all ran down into their bedroom.
and taylers two little brothers hid behind the bed and jamie put her back up against the interior door of their bedroom and he just sht rigt through it.
police would later tell tyler his parents were the first to die that night.
tylers stepmom was shot while on the line to 9-1-1. having watch their mother die the boys aged 10 and 12 hid in a closet until their realized the gunman was trying to set the house on fire.
they could smell the smoke but it was gun smoke at the point and then one of tylers little brother went out and seen that he pulled some logs over ther fire, skattered them around on the floor.and then turn the prpoane range on .
the boys knew they had to run and they did through the woods to the next nearest house
wchich belonged to lisa mccully a teacher with two children and she had gone out to see these flames that were higher than the tree line. and went out because she saw an RCMP officer wnet out to probably ask: “should we evacuate, what the hack is going on ” and she was shot.
The gunman were parts of authentic RCMP police uniform.including a shirt and paint with the yellow stripe.
in the days that followed the RCMP seemed as dumbfounded as everyone else. officers arrived in Portapique to chaos it says.
” so there’s a structure fire , there ‘s a person down there with a gun . they ‘re still looking for him .”
and immediattely as per RCMP started seacrching for the gunman.what they found were bodies
” it´s very vague , what’s going on down there . but there is for sure multiple patients down there”
The Blairs.
Lisa Mccully
eventually ten more would be found .
Corey elison.
John Zahl and Joanne Thomas.
Dawn and Frank Gulenchyn
peter and joy bond
Emilie Tuck and her parents aaron and jolene.
” do we know if they’ve caught the assailant? “
” no , not for sure, they don´t know if they ´ve caught him. i don´t know.”
April 18, 2020
at 11 :32 , saturday night .RCMP issued their first public warning . a tweet.
No mention of fires or people being shot ,simply firemarms complaint and a warning to those in Portapique to stay inside.
Victim so far
50 kilometers away from Portapique north of the town of truro.
Nick and his wife Kristen had also seen posts on facebook.
They talked about it and went to bed and nick stayed up a little later kind of wachting what was going on , it just went quiet. kristen was a community health care worker hwho often traveled to places like Portapique. but that night there was no sense of impending danger.
there was no real cocern,like it wasn’t next door by any means and there’s a lot of communities between the town of Truro and portapique.
for a family of a nurse though a cooleague of kristen’s,there was concern. Heather O’ brien was a long -time friends of the blairs from portapique . her daughter, darcy was the first to hear the terrible news.
Darcy ‘s husband came out and woke her up at 5:30 in the morning on the 19th, at that point they weren´t sure like what had happened and darcy called her mom.and said greg and jamie are dead . and darcy wasn’t sure what ‘s going on.
Internal police bulletins show that overnight the RCMP identified wartman as a possible suspect. but it wasn´t until dawn they say that a witness emerged to confirmed their suspicions.
the witness heard a bang hon his door and he peeked around,it’s gabriell wartmans girlfriend. he went to the door , opened the door pulled her inside , slammed the door and relocked it
wortman’s girlfriend told him she’d been hiding in the woods all night. she ‘d later tell the police wartman had beaten her and restrained her.and said that gabriel lost his mind . he burned his own house. she was in panick and leon called 9-1-1.
Officers responded and it was at that time that through a significant key witness, they confirmed more details about gabriel wardman. thius includen the fact that he he was in possession of a fully marked and equipped replica RCMP vehicle and was wearing a police uniform. but where was that vehicle and where was wartman?
more than 12 hours after initial arrival in the Portapique area police began receiving a second series of 9-1-1 calls. that was an area which was more than 60 kilometers away from Portapique area.
that area is the wentworth valley , 45 minutes by car.
The calls were coming from another collection of country homes and cottages on hunter road
coralee’s neighbor texted and asked did anybody hear shots early this morning.coralee hadn´t hear any shots this moring, coralee then said i’m here and i can here something now. then all of the sudden there was a big explosion. and coralee ” like oh my god, what did you hear that , whats going on and,coralee’s neighbor texted back and they said ” oh my god. dont go anyware ,there’s a crazy man on the road”
security cameras would record what look like an RCMP cruiser on hunter road at 6:30 that morning.
near the home of alana jenkins and sean mcloud.
when the car left three hours later they would be dead.
wartman knew jenkins and mcleod they were correctional officers father and stepmother two girls .
eighteen year old emilia.
that house too was set ablaze
a neighbor,Tom Bagbly came to investigate and was also killed.
so was lillian campbell out for a morning walk.
4 more added to the list.
hunter road in wentworth is about 40 kilometers from the town of Debert.
On sunday morning kristen beaton was getting ready to head head that way for work. she was going to work early in the morning. little did nick know that would be the last one kiss he had.
even on the road . kristen was keeping an eye on facebook ,it was just before 10 that she called nick to say someone had reposted a new RCMP tweet.
identifing gabriel wortman as portapique suspect. nick send a picture of gabriel wortman and it was the last thing she read
by now Heather o’brien was on the road too .visiting cher children.
she knew would be upset by what had happened to the blairs
Heather and Kristen would die on the same rural road ,300 meters apart.
Heather sent a text message to her daughters, at 9:59 that said the RCMP, and shots fired in debert and she happend to be there when kristen was killed. that she thought maby she witnessed it or she saw too much ,heard to much . she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
so 12 hours after it started the death toll was 19.
and the gunman dressed as a cop wasn´t finished yet. from Debert to an area called shubanakadi. it’s another 50 kilometer drive.
Once again cesurity cameras capture wortman along the way calmly stopping to remove his jacket before carrying on.
by now the RCMP was getting reports of sightings, having failed to set up barricades, over night
it started dispatching officers to set up roadblocks
constable chad morrison
and heidi stevenson
were traveling to meet each other.both were communicating on their police radios with each other what apear to be a marked police vehicle then approached constable morrson.constable morrison thougt that the vehicle was constable stevenson.
the approaching police vehicle was actually driven by the gunman.
the gunman pulled up beside constable morrison and immediately opened fire.
morisson would survive the shooting , a few minutes later , stevenson would not.
after crashing into her cruiser wortman killed her and stole her her service pistol.
before turning on joey webber who had stopped to help.he then set all the cars on fire.
” we´re just overhead a vehicle fire at the exit on highway 2 at shubenacadie, itlooks like there might be a police car involved.”
” he just killed a real cop right in fron of us.”
” oh my god”
The gunman’s last victim was Gina Goulet , a fellow denturist
who happened to live nearby.
after killing herwortman stole her car traveled 21 kilometer before runnung out of gas,
it was only then and only because an RCMP, tactical unit had also stopped for gas that the killing spree was finally brought to an end.
while he was at the gas pumps on of the tactical resources came to the gas station to refuel their vehicle.
when the officer exited the vehicle there was an encounter and the gunman was shot .
and killed by police
” we have reports of the suspect down at the enfield big stop.”
11:26 am,13 hours,22 innocent people dead.
a gunman who had traveled across the province close to 200 kilometers in all.undetected and unstopped. how had it happened.
Seven months later the grieving continues for the 22 nova scotians who were killed.
compounding the grieve are the Questions. what did the RCMP know.
what did they do to try and stop the killer .
could any of the victims have been spared.
In 2002 ,gabriel wortman was convicted of assault.in 2010 he was investigated for threatning his parents.his father says he told police, wortman had guns.
in 2011 . there was another tip , municipal police in the town of truro were told wortman kept most of his guns at his cottage in portapique ,he was starting to have mental issues according to the tipser. telling people. he wantted to kill a cop.
” so that’s a community safety issue and an officer safety issue so those are taken are taken very seriously, that’s why our officer did recorded it for the bulletin to be shared with all plice agencies in province”
But Truro police didn’t have jurisdiction of portapique, the RCMP did , an officer was sent to visit wortman the RCMP says.but took no further action.
it won’t say what it did two years later when it got yet another another complaint about gabriel wortman and guns.
” when we first met him, it was a little sketchy. he found out that we were military and he showed myself and my husband all the illegal weapons that he had , and then he asked us if we could get him some weapons and some…bullets and stuff and i went and my husband both of us said no. it’s illegal you can’t do that.”
-brenda
Forbes reported the encounter to the RCMP.as well as information that wortman was abusing his partner.
brenda says they didn’t say that they were going to investigate, they said they’re going to check on it.but they said also that there’s probably nothing that we can do . brenda didn’t had actually proof that the weapons were there like pictures or whatever. but she had the knowledge. she had what she saw. she would have thought they would knock on the door and check it out.
“Nova scotians have lots of questions about what happened ,why it happened. what things were done. and what wasn’t.you can be assured that we have those same questions and we´ll be seeking answers throught our investigation “
-chief supt.chris leather
in seven months the RCMP has offered a few answers most of what is known has come from the media taking RCMP to court to force disclosures,as well as from the victims families who’ve been conducting their own investigation.
” it seems to me that the RCMP are not wanting the entire story to come out about how the response to this tragedy took place. it seems to be quite embarrassing.”
-robert pineo
take the RCMP’S initial response it still wont say exactly how many officers were dispatched that night. or when reinforcements arrived.but it insists the first responders were heroes immediately going after the threat.
as dictated by the training, their objective was to locate and to stop that threat. this is what those RCMP first responders were working towards. but a wittness saw no evidence of that .not until the emergency response team arrived from halifax which he says was more than two hours later.
The RCMP ‘s initial response consisted of three police cars , a ccording to witnesses. parked at the entrance to portapique
to robert’s understanding is during that time it was more of a secure the scene operation rather than a boots on the ground let’s like , let’s neautralize the gunman.
that’scertainly how it looked to others who were there too
” and it could have saved some more lives. i hid in the woods for about four hours.starring up the sky freezing to death , looking for red flashing lights that never came. that never came.! so hours, hours, people were there burning to death and dying it took hours for a respons? that´s not right. that´s not right at all “
-clinton
and remember those two young boys who were there when the gunman killed their parents.
“they kept clear minds and kept themselves safe, thats when they booked it rthough the woods and over the neighbor’s house and they ran inside with lisa mccullys two young kids.
-tyler
together the children hid in the basement and called 9-1-1.
tyler says he think they just talked to the whole time keeping them calm, they give them that safe word to not come out until they hear somebody come in and say that word.
but that would take an awfully long time , again more than two hours.
as tyler says it shouldn’t take two hours to go in and get four young kids out of an area where some madman’s running around with a gun.and he has no clue why they didn’t.
mccully family says RCMP told them it knew the children were there and had stationed as many as six officers around the house to protect them.but tyler blair has never been told that and he doesn’t believe it .and says the RCMP have been caught in many lies. it’s hard for him to believe a word that comes over the mouth.
whatever was or wasn’t happening on the ground the RCMP was busy overnight tracking vehicles associated with gabriel wortman , including former police cars by the dawn , when all three had been accounted for the RCMP then made a fateful assumption.
the lawyer of the families robert pineo says that they (RCMP) believed wortman was dead that he committed suicide and was in one of his buildings
that assumption has been confirmed by an RCMP source who says at that point some officers were even sent home .
but then they learned about that fourth replica police car and something else they hadn’t realized
portapique had a back way out a dirt road through a blueberry field.
” this is how he got out, they assumed they assumed he killled himself , well that’s good for them to assume that . but if he didn’t do that he drove out this road . it’s the only way out of here. everybody in the community knows it that it’s here”
-leon
but leon says that night police didn’t ask.if so ,leon would told them, that he went out this road. and think it’s just unbelievable it happened . that they assumed and then didn’t know until he picked up killing.he could have been on a plan in another country if he would played his cards right.says leon.
instead he moved freely for 13 hours. overnight as police would later learn in an industrial park before hitting the road again.
darcy she grew up in this community ,there’s very few ways in and out . they could have blocked the roads in so many places but they didn’t . but no, roadblocks. and dont underestand that either. they could have blocked off the highway to wentworth .she says that they had an opportunity to stop him before people who died on the 19th were killed
” they should have cars in pretty much every area that they could. local dispatchers lile truro police should have been notified and they weren’t and he drove through truro.”
-amielia mcleod.
Truros police chief didn’t learn that until a week later.
” this didnt’ happent in our jurisdiction however we hare the neighboring police agency. and obviously community safety is our number one focus. as well as officers safety,so any information that we would have obtained would be helpful”
-Turor ,chief dave mcneil
On sunday morning ,truro police called in extra. officers and was offering help . but truro was stood don by the RCMP. as was the next closest municipal force.
instead ,the RCMP turned to its own for reinforcements in halifax snf moncton. both an hour and a half away.with so many out -of – town officers.converginge near portapique, communication was a challenge. one that almost turnded deadly in a nearby community of Onslow.
having realized wortman had escaped portapique on sunday morning the RCMP sent a bulletin to all police services to be on the look out for the fake cruiser.
at on onslow’s volunteer fire hall an officer was standing guard. in his cruiser when another RCMP car drove by.minutes later there was gunfire.
” i heard the shots.i was in this front room right here yelling, take cover get down or shots fired”
-deputy chief darrellcurrie
“both front doors opened. they ran one ran into the ditch and one ran behind the garbage in.”
-sharon
Across the street sharon mclellan was on the phone with her sister and watch as officers in the passing cruiser jumped out and opened fire.
” and they started shooting and i started freaking because i thought the shooter was there”
-sharon
But the shooter wasn’t there .
” i had no idea what was going on, the station cops that was there started to put his hands up. pretty much to tell them” it’s me ! dont shoot.”
-sharon
i have no idea what kind of weapons they were but there was more than 32 holes in that fire hall. it was totaly chaos .total!”
-sharon
“just a complete and utter failure, just lucky that those firefighters weren’t shot and killed with shots going through the wall”
-robert pinero
for the communication to say the least but nothing compared to to how the RCMP was conveying critical information to the public.
in times of emergency information can save lives.on that terrible april weekend when 22 innocent nova scotians lost their lives. The RCMP did not issue a province-wide emergency alert.instead it communicated with the public on social media.
” they shared everything over twitter.which is an absolute piss off to me and anyone i have a conversation with.no buddy i know uses twitter”
-nick
in 13 hours the RCMP tweeted ten times telying it later said on local media to rebroadcast the tweests. anyone who did see them would have assumed they were the latest and most complete information the RCMP had. but that wasn’t always the case.
remeber what the RCMP about how and when it learned critical details about the gunman .
“it was at that time that the throught a significant that significant key witness, we confirmed more deatails about gabriel warden.”
-supt. darren campbell
” this included the fact that he was in possession of a fully marked and equipped replica RCMP vehicle. and was wearing a police uniform.”
-supt. darren campbell
The RCMP said that information came from Gabriel Wortman partner.how didn’t emerge from hiding until early sunday morning.
” prior to that time, we did not have all those details. the bulk of the detals about our suspect came to us at that time”
– chief supt. chris leather.
but the RCMP did have the very same details at least eight hours earlier from the very first witness it enoucountered portapique. that man has never been identified publicly he was driving his car when wortman ,shot and injurde him.at 10 .30 saturday night he did speak to an RCMP officer on the scene .
” i saw gabe, i saw him , and i saw his gun ,he had a laser sight on the gun”
-witness
he told a privat investigator what he dol the officer .
” i think i literally said 90% sure it’s my neighbour gabe, and he had a RCMP offficer, he had a RCMP car . i knew he had those cars but i ‘d never seen them badged “
-wittness
the badges he said made it look exaxtly like a real police cruiser.
” it was a replica RCMP car . rgiht away he grabbed his radio and radioed exactly what i told him . he did radio thar right away to somebody.”
-witness
The RCMP must have been the man internal police bulletins show that by 1 it had identfied wortman as a suspect
linking to an old wihte police car , seven hours later an uptade called it a afully bfully makred plice car
and gave the number crucially it also warned police police that wortman could be anywhere in in the provence.
but that’a not what the RCMP was telling the publick
8:02 am.
at amlost the exact same time as that internaional bulletin it put out another tweet. advising that its active shooter investigation was continuing. de danger still cofined to protapique
50 minutes after that another tweet , did identify wortman but make no mention of him being anywhere..or any of information we now know the RCMP the night before .
” i’ve gone over and over and ove again they didn’t relesea that he was dressed Anofficer or an american cruiser , if RCMP had armed us with the information,of who he was and what they knew by 11 o’clock saturday night. theres’ she wouldn even been on the road. agw would not ledt the house. we sat their with firearms protecting our famly. and she would be behind me , she would be safe.
-tyler
for heather o brien too the information would come to late.
“would have been after mom was killed. that they posted that he was in the glen home area. itwas after she was killed that they posten he was in an RCMP car . it was after it was all after .and that´s information the RCMP chad known for hours.since the night before. jap.”
-Darcy.
o’ brien and beaton were killed just after 10 sandsay morning. at 17 minutes past ten the RCMP
finally share those critical details. their family are convinced could have save the women and other s too.
in the aftermatg of the tragedy nova scotia stood strong. embrassing the families of the 22 hwo who were killed.
but when those families started asking hard questions the government of nov scotia and the police focre it employs went quiet .
the RCMP really didn’t tell no one antything. everyone now just äs much no as they did back in in april.
but they did have to fight and because they did they did there will now be a public inquiry, thought findings will take at least two year.
every family still has its questions ,why the RCMP apparently made that fatful early assumption thar wortmans was dead.
heather’s o brians family wants a straight answer as to how she died.
the RCMP insists wortman´s inpersonation of an officer played no role her dead or any
the gunman did not use the RCMP replica vehicle to pull over any of the victims at the time.
-darren campbell
” we know that at least three of the victims where either stopped because they saw an RCMP car and felt safe, stopped because they thought they had a duty to stop because it was an RCMP car or activiely stopped to help the RCMP in a apparent distress.”
– robert pineo
” in a apparent distress to say that the vehcle and or uniform didn’t play a role in those .i think is deliberately misleading.
O ‘briens family says they were also misled about how she was shot across the road and at a distance RCMP told them, then they got there car back.
” we know that he was his hand and gun were inside of her vehicle. because my father has shell casings from his gun . that were never cleaned out of the car .so we got the car back with… we got the car back with a lot of evidence in it. there were still pieces of her inside that vehicle when we got it back.”
-Darcy.
The families are now suing the RCMP.
and the province of nova scotia for negligent
” we just want answers , we want the truth, full transparency. what the RCMP to say we messed up we made pisstakes. here ,here and here.we´re learning from it and it’s not going to happened again.. they should allready be reviwing what they did wrong and have they ?
-taylor
The RCMP won’t answer that or any questions because it says it’s still investigating hpw gabrel wortman got his illegal weapons and who might have helped him.
relevant questions to be sure, but not the only or most important ones for the 22 familis now struggling to move on.
