Dispatch call logs from the Truro Police Service obtained by CBC News through access to information give a glimpse into the confusion as RCMP scrambled to track down the suspect travelling through rural communities shooting people between April 18 and 19.
Fifteen minutes before the Nova Scotia gunman was shot dead by police at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., on April 19, Truro police officers descended on a Sobeys grocery store 64 kilometres away.
An RCMP dispatcher had called officers in Truro to report that their suspect — the man responsible for killing 22 people — was spotted at the store on Robie Street.
“He has multiple weapons,” the RCMP dispatcher warned Truro police at 11:12 a.m.
The municipal police force quickly asked all units to respond and assist RCMP at the store. At that point, the shooter, Gabriel Wortman, was still believed to be driving a silver Chevy Tracker, as RCMP had advised on Twitter a few minutes previously.
Officers from Truro reported back a few minutes later to say that the only thing they found at the Sobeys was an RCMP Emergency Response Team.
In fact, Wortman was far from Truro, and he was driving one of his victim’s cars — a grey Mazda, his third vehicle of the day.
As Wortman travelled through rural communities shooting people while masquerading as a Mountie, the actual RCMP remained a few steps behind.
The confusion and chaos of the manhunt is reflected in records obtained by CBC News through access to information, including call logs from Truro Police Service dispatch.
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Police called to lock down hospital
As night turned to day on that Sunday, officers in Truro — the town the gunman would pass through hours later — appeared to know little about the terror the 51-year-old Wortman had caused in Portapique, N.S., about 40 km away.
The municipal police force was alerted to a shooting not by the RCMP but by the local hospital, which went into lockdown after treating at least one gunshot victim who came in from the county.
Family members of a man who was shot in the arm told the officers stationed outside the hospital’s emergency department that the suspect, still on the loose, had been driving what looked like a police cruiser.
At 12:58 a.m., someone from the RCMP called Truro police and said in addition to a Mercedes, their suspect was “associated to a second vehicle, a white [one], and it’s been described as a former police car, with even, like … a decal on, like a Canada decal.” There was no information passed on about the number of people killed at that point.
Ten minutes later, RCMP sent out a Be on the Lookout (BOLO) bulletin, the first of several issued to police agencies across the province, warning Wortman was wanted in an “active shooter incident in progress.”
Seven hours later — and 10 hours after the initial 911 call came in — RCMP confirmed to Truro officers that the shooter was travelling in a replica RCMP cruiser. (They’ve previously said that investigators learned this information from the gunman’s girlfriend once she emerged at daybreak after hiding in the woods overnight.)
‘A community safety issue’
Other than the call to lock down the town and go to the Sobeys, the Truro Police Service did not respond directly to the shootings, which occurred in RCMP jurisdiction in Colchester, Cumberland and Hants counties.
Last week, during the RCMP’s first press conference in more than a month, the province’s top Mounties stressed that they did communicate with other policing agencies throughout the mass shooting incident.
They have also said that more than 100 RCMP members responded during the hunt, including officers from surrounding counties as well as specialized units, including crisis negotiators, the police dog service and an explosive disposal team. As part of that response, Mounties in New Brunswick were also called in to help.
