N.S. cops who mistakenly opened fire during mass shooting stand by actions

HALIFAX — Two RCMP officers who mistakenly shot at a man outside a rural Nova Scotia firehall as they searched for a rampaging gunman said Thursday they believed they had found the shooter and defended their actions as consistent with their training.

Const. Terry Brown and Const. Dave Melanson made the assertion as they testified before the commission of inquiry into the mass shootings that claimed 22 lives over a 13-hour period on April 18-19, 2020.

“It’s a great benefit to go back and say if you knew this or you knew that,” said Melanson, who became emotional. “I didn’t have that benefit. I had a fraction of a second. On that day I gave my all.”

Brown said he believed he had identified a threat outside the firehall in Onslow, N.S., on the morning of April 19, based on the information he had about the shooter — primarily that the suspect was wearing an orange reflective vest and driving a replica RCMP cruiser.

Both he and Melanson fired their RCMP-issue carbine rifles from about 88 metres away, striking the building along with a monument and a sign in front of it.

The pair had been searching for killer Gabriel Wortman, who was believed to be somewhere in the immediate vicinity. They stopped their unmarked car on the road near the firehall after observing an RCMP cruiser parked outside the building with a man in a vest standing near the vehicle. Both officers said they didn’t see RCMP Const. Dave Gagnon, who was sitting inside the car.

The man in a yellow and orange safety vest turned out to be David Westlake, the emergency management co-ordinator for Colchester County. The officers fired at Westlake, who ducked for cover and ran to safety inside the firehall.

“We came across a person that was identical to a description that we had — a guy in an orange reflective vest standing next to a police car,” Brown said. “All of my focus was on that person in the orange reflective vest.”

Brown said he believes the situation “translated exactly to training I’ve done.”

He added that he is sorry for what Westlake and three firemen who were in the building went through. He said he had no idea the firehall was being used as a comfort centre for people told to leave their homes in Portapique, N.S., where the killings had begun the night before.