ALERT SYSTEM
Residents along killer’s route say notification would have helped
Questions arise over how public was notified of shooting, arson rampage in Nova Scotia
HALIFAX—A murderous rampage by a Halifax man impersonating an RCMP officer has claimed 22 lives, police announced Tuesday as some questioned why more wasn’t done to warn citizens along his route.
The RCMP confirmed in a news release that the killing began in Portapique, N.S., and when police arrived Saturday night they discovered several casualties inside and outside of a home.
The killer’s trail continued overnight and into the next morning through Wentworth, Debert and Shubenacadie before he was shot dead by police in Enfield at around noon Sunday.
When it was over, there were 16 different crime scenes.
During that time, the RCMP provided Twitter updates. But no public agency issued a public emergency alert that automatically pops up on all smartphones and televisions — even though the provincial alert system had recently been used to advise people to maintain physical distancing because of COVID-19.
David and Heather Matthews were out for a stroll in a wooded valley in Wentworth on Sunday morning when they were confronted with a choice: They could walk down the road on Highway 4, or go down a trail.
“I just didn’t have a good feeling about something,” David Matthews recalled in a phone interview. “I said, ‘I’m not going down the road.’”
About halfway along the trail, the couple heard a “pop,” which they said sounded like it could be a gunshot, or perhaps just a car backfiring.
Shortly after the Matthews returned home, their phone started ringing with warnings from friends that there was an active shooter on the loose in the neighbourhood. They later learned that a fellow walker was gunned down that morning on a road nearby.
“If I had gone down the road, he probably would have shot us,” David Matthews said.
“In my mind, there should have been some provincial alert ... (that) you’ve got to be careful, because there’s an active shooter in the area.”
From Wentworth, the precise route of Gabriel Wortman — identified by police as the killer — remains unclear, but police have said he targeted people he knew and others he did not know.
The RCMP has said the 51year-old denturist continued to evade his pursuers in part because he was wearing an “authentic” police uniform and driving a vehicle painted to look exactly like an RCMP patrol car. When asked Monday during a news briefing why a provincewide emergency alert wasn’t used, Chief Supt. Chris Leather said: “It’s a good question, and I don’t have an answer for you at this moment.” The RCMP did not hold a briefing and offered no further comment on the issue Tuesday.
Premier Stephen McNeil said the province’s emergency alert system was ready to go but wasn’t used because no request was received at the Emergency Management Office from the RCMP.
“We had staff on hand in the morning to be able to do that, but it was not requested,” he told reporters.