The RCMP have acknowledged they were aware that Gabriel Wortman was driving a replica cruiser and wearing a police uniform for hours before they shared the information with the public. A lag that friends and family say may have contributed to the deaths of six people.
Tom Bagley was on the phone with his daughter before he left the house for his Sunday morning walk, a bit ahead of 9 a.m. Heather O’Brien sent her family a final group chat message at 9:59 a.m. And Kristen Beaton was texting back and forth with her husband almost right up to the moment she was killed, not long after 10 a.m.
All three were in close contact with loved ones early on April 19, heading about their business as usual, and completely unaware of the danger that lurked nearby — a killer stalking the province disguised as a police officer.
At a Friday news conference in Nova Scotia, the RCMP revealed that officers first heard that a shooting suspect might be driving a look-a-like police car around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. And that by 7 a.m. on April 19, Gabriel Wortman’s girlfriend had confirmed that he was indeed behind the wheel of a replica RCMP cruiser and wearing a uniform.
Not long after, they shared that information in a BOLO — be on the lookout — bulletin with police forces across the province.
But the public wasn’t informed until the RCMP sent out a tweet at 10:17 a.m.
And in that gap, Wortman killed an additional six victims, according to the RCMP’s own timeline of events that was shared with reporters on Friday.
Sean McLeod and Alana Jenkins, both corrections officers, and acquaintances of Wortman, were killed around 9:30 a.m. and their house in Wentworth, N.S., was set ablaze. Police also discovered the body of their neighbour, Bagley, a 70-year-old navy vet and retired firefighter, on the property.
Lillian Hyslop, a retiree, was shot near the gates of Wentworth Provincial Park, 11 kilometres to the south, a short time later.
And O’Brien and Beaton, both home care nurses for the Victorian Order of Nurses, were killed in their cars near the town of Debert, about 30 kilometres further along Highway 4, within minutes of each other. The RCMP says Wortman pulled the women over with his fake police cruiser and then shot them. And that by 10:08 a.m., he had left the area and was on his way to Shubenacadie, where Wortman would claim the final three of his 22 victims, before he himself was killed in a gas-station shootout with police at 11:26 a.m.
