Girlfriend of Canadian mass shooter tipped off the police

CANADA’S worst mass shooting began after the gunman assaulted his girlfriend, who survived the attack and told police he was disguised as a Mountie, it was confirmed yesterday.

Gabriel Wortman, 51, shot dead 22 people across central and northern Nova Scotia last weekend.

Darren Campbell, a superintendent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said Wortman’s rampage began after he handcuffed and attacked his partner. She escaped on Saturday night and slept in the woods.

Wortman then began working off a “hit list”, burning homes and shooting people in the rural community of Portapique, where he lived for part of the year. A total of 13 people were found dead inside and outside of their homes.

At about 6.30am on Sunday, Wortman’s girlfriend, who has not been named, emerged from hiding and called the police, giving detailed information about the fake police car he was driving and his genuine RCMP uniform.

Supt Campbell said: “I’ve been a police officer for 30 years now and I can’t imagine a more horrific set of circumstances than looking for someone who looks like you. That was obviously an advantage the suspect had on police, public, everyone he encountered.”

An hour after the call from Wortman’s girlfriend, police received calls from a spot more than 35 miles away, where the gunman killed three more people he knew and set a house on fire. He also shot a woman on the street and pulled cars over, killing the occupants, Supt Campbell said.

His fake police car then collided with a female police officer’s car. He shot and killed the officer and a witness.

Wortman, a dental technician, then drove to the house of a woman he knew and killed her, before removing his uniform and stealing her car.

He then stopped to get petrol and was eventually shot dead by a police officer who happened to be at the petrol station refuelling.