Gunman in Canada Kills More Than 10 People in Rampage
PORTAPIQUE, Nova Scotia—A gunman in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia killed more than 10 people, including a policewoman, during a 12-hour rampage, authorities said on Sunday, in the worst act of mass murder the country has seen in 30 years.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman—who had disguised his car to look like a police cruiser—shot people in several locations across the Atlantic province. Authorities said they were still trying to establish a final death toll.
Police added that Wortman was dead, but would not confirm a CTV report that he had been shot and killed by the RCMP.
“Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia, and it will remain etched in the minds for many years to come,” Lee Bergerman, commanding officer of the RCMP in Nova Scotia, told reporters. The slain policewoman was an RCMP officer.
The massacre looked to be the worst of its kind since a gunman killed 15 women in Montreal in December 1989. A man driving a van deliberately ran over and killed 10 people in Toronto in April 2018.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada.
Police said they discovered several bodies late on Saturday after being called to a disturbance in the small Atlantic coastal town of Portapique, about 130 km (80 miles) north of the provincial capital, Halifax.
Initial probes showed Wortman had also killed people in several other locations, said Chris Leather, the Nova Scotia RCMPs criminal operations officer.
“In excess of 10 people have been killed,” he said.
At one point, Wortman was seen wearing a police uniform, Leather said, but he did not specify whether the suspect had been disguised as an officer when the killings occurred.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said it was “one of the most senseless acts of violence in our provinces history.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, deplored what he called “a terrible situation.”
