According to police, quoted by The Associated Press, several bodies were found inside and outside of a house in the small rural town of Porcupine, and several houses were set on fire. The bodies of the victims were found in other places. The guards neutralized the gunman later, 12 hours after he opened fire. Authorities suggest that the shooter intentionally killed his first three victims, and then began to attack bystanders.
Residents of Portopia said that he first heard about the incident around midnight from Saturday to Sunday, when police called them all to stay home. Officers arrived to a house after receiving emergency calls and found some of the victims. According to police, many of the victims knew the shooter.
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, expressed regret about what he called a “terrible situation”. “Today, for Nova Scotia, devastating day, and he will remain in the memory of many people for many years”, – said the commander of the Royal mounted police of Canada Lee Bergman.
the Assailant was identified as 51-year-old Gabrielle Wortman, who worked as a dentist in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, said on the website of the local Society of dentists. He was the owner of the clinic and specialized in the installation of dental prostheses. It is unknown what made the doctor late in the evening to come to the North of the province, in a quiet and peaceful Portapak where I live mostly older people and almost no crime, and commit mass slaughter.
Tom Taggart, a Deputy representing the district of Portopia in the municipality of the County of Colchester, said the quiet community was shocked by what happened. “It’s just a wonderful peaceful quiet community, and the idea that it can happen here, just unimaginable,” said Taggart, adding that Wortman at the time, bought a big house in Porcupine and repeatedly turned to him for advice on some municipal matters.
During the shooting Wortman was dressed in a police uniform and was driving a Chevrolet sport-utility vehicle, which he modified so that he resembled a police car. After the shooting in Porcupine, the man headed toward Halifax. By this time police have released photos of Wortman on the expected route of movement, warning that he is “armed and dangerous”. The shooter was blocked at the gas station in Enfield, located about 40 kilometres from Halifax.
Wortman opened fire in response to calls to surrender. During the shooting, was wounded one police officer and killed constable Heidi Stevenson, mother of two children, who served in law enforcement for 23 years. The police have not yet called mochi��s actions Wortman, and how he had a weapon.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, where laws about gun control is much stricter than in the United States. The country revised its law on circulation of arms in the direction of its tightening after the gunman a loner Marc Lepine killed 14 women at the College of the Polytechnic school of Montreal in 1989. Another tragic incident occurred in Toronto in April 2018, when the man who was driving the van, deliberately knocked down 10 people, and earlier, another attacker shot and killed six people in the Islamic cultural centre in Quebec city in 2017.
In Canada, it is illegal to have an unregistered gun or any other weapon. In order to get it, anyone needs to take a course under the supervision of instructors, to provide a few references, including the consent to purchase it from one of the relatives, and a document from the doctor about his mental health and a certificate from the police for the absence of a criminal record.
Shooting in Nova Scotia, observers say, marks another grim milestone in this seaside region for the RCMP, having the functions of the police and counterintelligence. In August 2018, a man in the province of new Brunswick, bordering on Nova Scotia, shot and killed four people, including two policemen, in a residential complex. In June 2014 in the same province, a man shot three police officers.
