‘ULTIMATE SACRIFICE’
RCMP officers stand at attention Monday as a hearse carrying the body of Const. Heidi Stevenson drives to the force’s Nova Scotia headquarters in Dartmouth. Stevenson was among those killed in the weekend rampage in the central part of the province.
It is already the worst killing spree in Canadian history and a mournful stain for the people of Nova Scotia and yet — and yet — there are still horrors to be revealed.
As the penny-tasting panic of a rampaging gunman subsides, investigators now turn to the dreadful task of digging through ash and charred timbers where it is believed still more victims will be uncovered.
“We’ve been unable to fully examine the crime scenes because, for instance, we have had five structure fires, most of those being residences, and we believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes, which burnt to the ground,” RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather, in charge of RCMP operations in the province, said Monday afternoon.
The plain-spoken words betray the magnitude and the gravity of the work ahead before we can grasp for the answers we long for: we still don’t know how many were killed and who they are, never mind why. Police weren’t even sure on Sunday how many people had been injured but survived an encounter with the gunman. There were some, including RCMP Const. Chad Morrison.
RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson, however, did not escape with her life. She is one of the few confirmed by police to be among the dead.
The carnage spreads over 16 crime scenes in several communities in central and northern Nova Scotia. Some scenes still need “processing,” how police refer to the meticulous examination, retrieval and documentation of evidence in the hope it will reveal what happened.
The rampage lasted so long — about 12 hours — and moved around so much, police cannot say for certain they have identified every scene, although they believe they know them all.
“We will be in this for months to come,” said Leather. “I know this is a challenging time for Nova Scotians and there are so many unanswered questions. I want to reassure you that we are working hard to find out as much information as possible.”
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said complex investigations can be surprising.
“What we may have right in front of our eyes is usually not what ends up happening,” she said.
The first priority, she said, is to find and identify each of the dead.
“In the face of this unprecedented crime, it is going to be very long and very complicated. It is not going to be gone through overnight,” Lucki said.
“But our focus must and will be to put names to the victims, to the heroes, to the people who served their community.”
The crime scenes left behind by Gabriel Wortman, 51, started late Saturday night in Portapique, N.S., home to about 100 residents, about 40 kilometres west of Truro, when police received gun calls.
Responding officers found victims inside and outside a house. This is presumed to be the first crime scene in the difficult and sprawling investigation.
Police say Wortman managed to remain at large for so long despite a manhunt because people would have believed him to be an RCMP officer. That too is under investigation.
“We’ll never have an opportunity to interview the subject, however we can say that his ability to move around the province undetected was surely greatly benefited by the fact he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car,” Leather said.
“Beyond that, he was wearing a police uniform which was either a very good fabrication of or actually a police uniform and that surely contributed to his ability to circulate.
“We don’t know the origin of the uniforms but we certainly have reason to believe that they were either actual uniforms or very good facsimiles,” said Leather. “We haven’t recovered all of the garments.”
Lucki said Wortman was not on police radar because of his interest or ownership of police paraphernalia.
“We will trace back every part of that vehicle to find out how that happened, as well as with the uniforms,” she said.
There are also other messy aspects to this probe coming to light.
The RCMP have referred three incidents to the province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), which independently investigates serious incidents arising from police actions in Nova Scotia. One is the take down of Wortman that ended the rampage with his death.
On Monday, SIRT said it had rejected one of the referrals and was investigating the discharge of firearms by two members of the RCMP.
Adding to the unanswered questions, Lucki suggested it may have been RCMP members firing on other RCMP members: “No innocent civilians have been harmed in these use-of-force incidents,” she said when pressed.
Pat Curran, interim director of SIRT, declined to discuss the cases.
Wortman’s weaponry is also being probed.
“There is still a lot of work to be done with regards with the various firearms used in this crime spree,” Lucki said when asked what type of guns he used, where he got them and whether they were legally acquired.
“We will be doing a lot of tracing and will be doing a lot of background work into that.”
The RCMP are relying on the medical examiners to help. A specific cause of death for each victim is needed to help determine what types of weapons Wortman used.
As for motive, the answer to the most perplexing question of “why,” that too is under investigation.
There are early suggestions of a domestic spark. While some of Wortman’s victims were known to him, including neighbours, others weren’t, police said.
One thing Lucki said, is that so far, police aren’t aware of him documenting his motivation.
“No note has been found to date,” she said.
WHAT WE MAY HAVE RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES IS USUALLY NOT WHAT ENDS UP
HAPPENING.