Rampage after row with partner

CANADA’S worst mass shooting erupted from an argument between the gunman and his girlfriend, who survived the attack, police confirmed yesterday.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Darren Campbell said last weekend’s shooting rampage started with an assault by the suspect on his girlfriend and ended with 22 people dead across central and north Nova Scotia.

‘‘She did manage to escape. That could well have been the catalyst of events,’’ Campbell said.

Authorities say the suspect may have planned some of the murders.

Campbell said the girlfriend hid overnight in the woods from the suspect, who has been identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman. Police have said Wortman acted alone in the shooting spree that killed 22 people in more than 16 crime scenes in several communities.

Campbell said they found 13 deceased victims in Portapique, a quiet community of 100 residents where the suspect lived part time.

Campbell said Wortman’s girlfriend emerged from the woods in the morning, called 911 and told police the suspect was driving a mock police car and was in police uniform.

Police later started receiving 911 calls more than 60 kilometres away. Campbell said the suspect killed three people and set their house on fire. He knew two of them. He then shot a woman on the street and pulled cars over and shot and killed people.

He later shot and injured a policeman in his car. The officer managed to escape. Campbell then said there was a collision between a female officer’s police car and the gunman’s car. He shot and killed the officer, took her gun and set fire to the cars. He then killed a passerby and took their SUV.

He drove to a house and killed a woman he knew before removing his police uniform and stealing her car. He then drove to get gas and was shot by a police officer who happened to be at the gas station. The suspect was shot on the Sunday morning, about 13 hours after the attacks began.

‘‘There seems to be a trail of individuals who had problems with Mr Wortman,’’ Campbell said.

Wortman owned a denture practice in the city of Dartmouth, near Halifax. AP

Mourners, asked to wear red yesterday, are seen by a mural dedicated to slain Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Heidi Stevenson, during a province-wide, two-minutes of silence for the 22 victims of last weekend’s shooting rampage, in front of the RCMP detachment in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.