In today’s Morning Brief, we look at the video and audio recordings that captured the chaos and confusion of the 13-hour manhunt police manhunt during the weekend shooting rampage in Nova Scotia. We also look at how the push to research COVID-19 has come at the cost of developing treatments for other ailments.
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Recordings reveal chaos of Nova Scotia manhunt
RCMP investigators in Nova Scotia haven’t finished tracing the path of the man they say killed 22 people last weekend, but newly obtained video and audio recordings capture the chaos and confusion surrounding their 13-hour manhunt.
The initial 911 call, reporting the sound of gunshots in the tiny beach community of Portapique, N.S., was logged at 10:26 p.m. AT on Saturday. But when officers arrived 12 minutes later, they quickly understood that the situation was much more dire.
“Is there also a structure fire out this way?” an officer asked his dispatcher in a radio exchange captured by Broadcastify, a website that monitors emergency communications. “We’re seeing huge flames and smoke.” Within five minutes, police had found the first of many victims, and an ambulance was directed to the scene.
Watch | Video shows gunman wearing uniform, changing clothes
For the RCMP, confusion about the exact nature of the crime and whether the suspect was still on the loose persisted for hours. It wasn’t until early Sunday — sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., according to RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather, the province’s criminal operations officer — that investigators finally came to understand that their suspect, Gabriel Wortman, was likely wearing an RCMP uniform and driving a replica police cruiser.
“Nova Scotians have lots of questions about what happened, why it happened, what things were done and what wasn’t,” Leather said yesterday. “You can be assured that we have those same questions and we’ll be seeking answers.”
Leather defended the force’s actions — including the decision to rely on Twitter to spread news of an armed and dangerous suspect making his way across the province — referencing the “unimaginable” challenges posed by a rampage that stretched over 100 kilometres and encompassed at least 16 separate crime scenes.
The RCMP say Wortman acted alone and did not possess any licenses for firearms in Canada. But their inquiries continue, with a special focus on who might have helped Wortman obtain his replica vehicle, and apparently authentic uniform. Read more on this story here.
Reach out
(Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
A woman in a mask walks past a mural on the side of a building in New York City on Wednesday. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he would extend the shutdown of New York state until May 15 in co-ordination with other states to make progress in containing the novel coronavirus. Read how some U.S. states are planning reopenings amid the pandemic.
In brief
From new gene therapies to the latest in cancer treatments, thousands of clinical trials deemed non-essential are on hold due to COVID-19. Brad Wouters, the executive vice-president of science and research at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN), says the only new research happening at the moment is around COVID-19. About 200 of UHN’s researchers have pivoted to that, but thousands more risk losing their jobs, Wouters says, because in the past month alone UHN has lost $6 million in industry funding. Read more on how the pandemic has affected medical research.
Watch | COVID-19 paralyzes other medica