HALIFAX — The inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia released more details Monday about missteps the RCMP made as investigators tried to identify the killer’s vehicle early in his 13-hour rampage.
The inquiry has heard that during a chaotic 40-minute span on the night of April 18, 2020, the perpetrator fatally shot 13 people and set fire to several homes in Portapique, N.S., before escaping the rural enclave at 10:45 p.m. as police closed in. The gunman would kill another nine people the next day before he was shot dead by RCMP officers at a gas station north of Halifax.
Early in the RCMP’s investigation, several witnesses said they had spotted the killer driving a vehicle that looked like a fully marked RCMP cruiser. The inquiry has also heard that some of that key information did not get relayed to senior officers.
The descriptions given to 911 call-takers and police at the scene were accurate, but new evidence points to confusion and mistakes as the Mounties struggled to determine what vehicles the suspect owned and what he was actually driving.
For the first time, the inquiry revealed Monday that early on the first night, a senior Mountie was told the suspect owned several decommissioned police cars.
During a subsequent interview with inquiry investigators, RCMP Staff Sgt. Brian Rehill said operators at the Operational Communications Centre in Truro, N.S., had “personal knowledge” about the perpetrator.
“Some of them live out in that rural area,” said Rehill, who at the time was the centre’s on-duty risk manager. “They said, ‘That’s the guy that collects those decommissioned cars.’ So then everybody said, ‘OK, we’re looking for one of these white, Ford Tauruses.’”
But that key information was slightly at odds with what police were being told: the killer wasn’t driving an old, unmarked police car but a fully marked cruiser.
At 10:32 p.m., as three officers were searching for the gunman on foot, Rehill told another senior Mountie: “They’re saying someone in a police car is shooting people. But we don’t think it’s a police car. I think somebody is mixed up.”
Once the Mounties had confirmed that all of their patrol cars had been accounted for, the focus of the vehicle search turned to finding an old, unmarked police car, the inquiry has heard.
Previous evidence from the first three officers on the scene confirm they did not consider the possibility that the suspect could be driving what looked like a marked RCMP cruiser.
“At no point did I ever envision that it was an exact replica … of the cars we drive,” Const. Aaron Patton told inquiry investigators.
On another front, an oversight early in the investigation led the Mounties to believe the killer owned only one Ford Taurus Interceptor.
At 12:35 a.m. on April 19, 2020, Operational Communications Centre supervisor Jen MacCallum asked a dispatcher to issue an advisory for police to be on the lookout for two vehicles associated with the suspect: a white 2015 Mercedes and a white Ford Taurus.
The inquiry’s investigators later concluded the RCMP failed at that time to complete a database search for more vehicles registered to Berkshire Broman Corp., a New Brunswick company controlled by the suspect.
In all, the killer owned four decommissioned vehicles, all of them Ford Taurus Interceptors. Three of them were 2013 models. The fourth, a 2017 model modified to look exactly like an RCMP cruiser, was used by the killer during most of his time at large.
As the search for the killer continued through the first night, RCMP officers in Portapique found one Taurus at the killer’s summer residence, which had been set on fire before he left the village.
Const. Patton told investigators he believed the car was the one they were looking for, and Rehill later suggested the suspect could have abandoned the car and fled in another vehicle.
At 1:08 a.m. on April 19, 2020, the RCMP issued an advisory to its officers to be on the lookout for 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, an armed and dangerous active shooter associated with two vehicles: a C300 Mercedes and “an old police car (may be burned at scene).”
Less than an hour later, police in Halifax found a white Taurus behind Wortman’s denture clinic in the Halifax area. They confirmed that it had not moved for some time because it was covered in snow.
By 4:35 a.m. senior RCMP officers conducted a briefing at their command post in Great Village, N.S. In notes provided to the commission, Staff Sgt. Steve Halliday — the operations officer in the district — stated that three of the gunman’s Tauruses had been found: the snow-covered one and two torched vehicles in Portapique.
But inquiry investigators determined that was an error. In fact, transcripts of radio communications show senior Mounties didn’t know about all three vehicles until 7:20 a.m., when an officer confirmed the plate number on the Taurus found at the shooter’s home.
That’s when senior officers were made aware of the other former police vehicles connected with the gunman’s company. It was also around that time that the suspect’s common-law spouse, Lisa Banfield, emerged from hiding near the couple’s home in Portapique and told police how her husband had escaped in a fully marked vehicle loaded with weapons.
At 7:22 a.m., RCMP Staff Sgt. Bruce Briers — the risk manager who took over for Rehill — received word from Halifax Regional Police that Banfield’s sister and her partner had handed over images of the killer’s replica vehicle, which showed it had emergency lights and authentic decals.
According to notes provided to the inquiry, at 7:55 a.m. Staff Sgt. Halliday came to the conclusion that the gunman “could be on the run in a fully marked RCMP (vehicle).”
“This has to be communicated out to members … all municipal agencies, (police departments) and border crossings and we have to get it out to the public ASAP,” his notes say.
At 9:32 a.m., police received a call from April Dares, a resident of West Wentworth, N.S., who reported hearing gunshots and seeing a police car leave the area.
Investigators would later learn that the car was the one they were looking for, but the public had yet to be alerted about the vehicle. The gunman killed three people on Hunter Road that morning before moving on to kill six others, including a pregnant woman and a Mountie.
The photograph of the suspect’s vehicle was not shared with the public until 10:17 a.m., three hours after the photos were obtained by police.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2022.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
