The Nova Scotia community where one of the deadliest mass killings in this country’s history began earlier this month does not have 24-hour-a-day policing and was in the process of reviewing its RCMP service. Neither the mayor nor the RCMP have said at what time the initial 911 call came in.
The municipality of Colchester County, N.S., had been reviewing its RCMP service prior to a gunman’s deadly rampage through the rural community of Portapique earlier this month.
The county where the violence began currently has a 22-hour RCMP service. During the two hours a day when it isn’t staffed, there is an answering service and officers respond from home, according to the municipality.
County Mayor Christine Blair told CBC News that officers were on duty when the initial call came in from Portapique the night of Saturday, April 18.
But Blair did not say when exactly that was, what detachment responded or how many officers were on duty in the county at the time.
The RCMP said last Friday the initial call was for a shooting at a home. But the Mounties have also not disclosed where the responding officers came from that night or how long it took them to arrive in Portapique, which is located about 40 kilometres west of Truro.
It’s a key piece of the timeline that’s still missing as Canadians try to understand how one of the deadliest mass killings in the country’s history occurred and what, if anything, might have been done to stop it sooner.
Grisly scene
When first responders did arrive, they discovered a grisly scene.
Nova Scotia RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell said officers “located several people who were deceased, some of which were lying in the roadway. There were also several structures that were already fully engulfed in flames. In total, there were over seven locations where people were found deceased.”
In their nationally broadcast news conference last Friday, the RCMP laid out a timeline for Gabriel Wortman’s rampage, which began the night of April 18 and continued into the next morning, spanning dozens of kilometres and leaving 22 people dead. It ended when Wortman was killed in a shootout with police at a gas station in Enfield, 40 kilometres north of