Canada’s Deadliest Shooting
On April 23, 2020 by jmwebA once in a lifetime pandemic (COVID-19) combined with a once in a lifetime shooting is taking place in Nova Scotia currently.
On Saturday night multiple raging fires destroyed multiple buildings within the Portapique community in Nova Scotia.
A neighbour (doesn’t wish to be identified) of the shooter, Gabriel Wortman, described fireworks happening after as he was on his iPad and his wife was watching television. Their immediate reaction was it was fireworks for the COVID-19 first responders until they realized a house in their neighbourhood was fully engulfed in flames at 11:14pm.
The neighbour called 911 and after that call was done, they proceeded with a second call to another community neighbour. No answer at the neighbour’s house on the phone or at the door. Shortly thereafter a swat team was within the beautiful waterfront community which is a combination of local year roundhouses and cottages.
What would happen over the next 12 hours would be the result of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history. Nine hours later I would get a message about the active shooter situation unfolding in Nova Scotia. Once I heard this had been ongoing for 9 hours, I prepared to head over.
After an email conversation with Reuter’s Editor in Charge of North America, I proceeded to Nova Scotia. I was instructed to stay a bit further away on this for my own safety. An active shooter, switching vehicles and appearances is a dangerous combination.
Upon arriving at the border, I needed a quick photo to send in. I pulled over, jumped out of my car with it still running, which I don’t usually do. Upon having both feet on the ground, I said nope, doing this wrong. Stopped and turned the vehicle off, then proceeded on grabbing a quick photo.
Gabriel Wortman, suspect in active shooter investigation, is now in custody. More information will be released when available. Thank you for your cooperation and support. #Colchester
— RCMP, Nova Scotia (@RCMPNS) April 19, 2020
I then proceeded to continue down the highway while having tweets from the RCMP read to me. Numerous tweets by the RCMP later, it was clear the shooter was moving. Where he was headed could have been anyone guess. None the less, I continued on.
After a tweet by the RCMP stating the suspect was in custody, I thought great it is all over. The optimist inside me thought, he gave up and we’ll hear about what unfolded in a trial. In the end, I was wrong.
I headed towards Great Village, the location of the RCMP command post.
This small community was all of a sudden the center to a horrible situation. I met a couple of reporters from CBC who had been reporting on the issue.
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