Among the victims was a veteran female constable with the RCMP, which also handles municipal and provincial law enforcement in the province. NOVA SCOTIA RCMP/AFP
A gunman who drove a mock-up police car killed at least 16 people including a female constable in a shooting rampage across Nova Scotia, Canadian federal police said on Sunday, the worst case of its kind in the country’s history.
The shooter, identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by officers after a 12-hour manhunt across the eastern province ended on Sunday morning.
Among the victims was a veteran female constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which also handles municipal and provincial law enforcement in the province.
Police said the suspect had been on the run since Saturday night, when officers were alerted to shots fired in the town of Portapique, around 100km from Halifax.
Gun violence in Canada is far less frequent than in the neighbouring US, and weapons more strictly controlled, but the killings were the country’s worst-ever, exceeding the toll in 1989 when a gunman murdered 14 female students at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique.
“This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history,” said Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil.
Public broadcaster CBC quoted RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki as saying police know of at least 16 victims, besides the shooter.
“What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one,” Nova Scotia RCMP commanding officer, Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, wrote on the force’s local Facebook page.
Bergerman said the dead included Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force.
In addition to Stevenson, a mother of two, a male officer was injured and was in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Bergerman said.
The National Post newspaper said another victim was an elementary school teacher, citing a Facebook post from the woman’s sister.
Several victims were discovered outside and inside a house in Portapique, sparking the manhunt through multiple communities, police said.
“The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located. And I can confirm that he is deceased,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a press conference.
Leather said that at one point, the suspect appeared to be wearing part of a police uniform and was driving a vehicle made to look like an RCMP cruiser.
