Nobody would believe you if you said last week that Portapique, N.S. and the rural area surrounding it would be ground-zero for the country’s worst ever mass shooting.
Portapique is nestled along the peaceful shores of Cobequid Bay, 130 kilometres northwest of Halifax. It’s a close-knit community with fewer than a hundred permanent residents. That number doubles in the summer as people from Halifax make their way north to spend the warmer months in this picturesque part of the province.
Nova Scotia has seen its fair share of tragedy. The Westray mine explosion, the disaster at Glace Bay’s No. 26 colliery, the senseless murders at a McDonald’s in Sydney River and the downing of Swissair flight 111 all come to mind.
But nobody would believe you if you’d told them last week that this town, and its surrounding rural area, would be ground-zero for the country’s worst ever mass shooting.
“People are in shock. We’re still in shock,” Lenore Zann, the MP for Cumberland-Colchester, said in an interview Monday. “We’re a beautiful, quiet, peaceful little part of the world. Everyone is warm and caring and we’d prefer to be known as that.”
“The mourning is going to go on for some time as the shockwaves keep growing and more and more people realize who was killed so senselessly. We all know each other here.”
Police identified the killer as Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist and owner of a clinic in Dartmouth. The RCMP promised Monday to release a timeline of the shooter’s murderous march later this week. In the interim, CBC News has been able to piece together some of his movements.
The deadly mayhem started Saturday; 12 hours later, at least 18 people would be left dead.
‘It’s very bad what’s going on down there’
The provincial RCMP tweeted shortly after 11:30 p.m. Saturday that they were responding to a “firearms complaint” in the Portapique area and asked residents to stay inside and lock their doors. Wortman owned multiple properties in the area; a neighbour reported multiple homes along Portapique Beach Road were on fire.
“There’s a person down there with a gun. They’re still looking for him. It’s very bad what’s going on down there,” an officer said just after 11 p.m. according to a transcript of the police scanner.
The relationship between the gunman and the first wave of victims has not yet been confirmed by police but RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather said Monday some of them were known to the gunman before the attacks.
The police said they found “several” casualties inside and outside a residence in the area. Locals said people were gunned down as they tried to escape the flames.
WATCH | How the 12-hour shooting rampage in Nova Scotia unfolded:
A look at how the 12-hour shooting rampage through rural Nova Scotia unfolded overnight Saturday and into the early morning of Sunday. 3:28
The force’s Twitter feed then went silent overnight as the shooter evaded police and moved throughout northern and central Nova Scotia in a mock RCMP vehicle.
The police warned area residents that the man in question was also wearing a RCMP uniform — one that was virtually indistinguishable from the kit officers normally wear.
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