How a killer travelled through central Nova Scotia, claiming the lives of 22 victims and leaving 16 crime scenes in his wake, is now becoming much clearer.
But significant evidence has been lost because Gabriel Wortman set fire to his home and garage in Portapique, N.S. and it burned to the ground, police said at a news conference Friday morning.
RCMP have confirmed that before the mass killing began, Wortman restrained and beat a woman he was in a relationship with at his home in Portapique, N.S. before she escaped him and hid for hours in the woods.
That assault “could have been the catalyst” that began his rampage, Supt. Darren Campbell said at a news conference Friday, but police are not ruling out that significant pre-planning was involved.
The woman, who is recovered and is co-operating with police, confirmed to investigators that Wortman was driving a replica RCMP vehicle and was wearing a police uniform.
Investigators are tracking how Wortman managed to secure police equipment, including decals for a cruiser, a lightbar for the roof, uniforms and other equipment. But Campbell said they do not believe that the killer had access to police radio equipment.
Neighbours told police that Wortman had significant weapons on his property. Those used in the rampage appear to have been obtained in the United States, says Campbell. But it’s not clear how those weapons were brought into Canada.
It appears Wortman had three vehicles that were made to look like police vehicles. One he used in his attack and two others were destroyed in the fire on his property.
Other new details revealed Friday morning:
Police believe Wortman escaped road barriers set up in Portapique, where 13 people were discovered dead, by driving through a field. Investigators did not know a car had been witnessed escaping through a field until later, Campbell said. That allowed him to travel him about 100 km and to kill a further nine people.
Campbell says, contrary to a report in the Globe and Mail, they have not uncovered a hit list created by Wortman. He says that report, based on information from a neighbour, may stem from police contacting people they believed may have been at risk and removing them to safety. They were then interviewed by police to gather information about Wortman.
During a detailed accounting of Wortman’s deadly path, Campbell says Wortman killed two men and one woman in a home on Hunter Road in Glenhome and then set the residence on fire. Police say he knew at least two of the victims there.
He then travelled to a home on Highway 4 in Glenhome. He knocked on the door but the residents, who knew Wortman, did not answer. They called 911 and reported his identity, and told dispatchers he was armed and driving what looked like a police car. Wortman left that home.
RCMP also revealed that two RCMP officers had arranged to meet each other. The first officer was shot and injured but managed to get away. The second officer’s vehicle collided with that of the gunman. She was fatally shot and her weapon was taken by the gunman, who then torched both vehicles.
A passerby who stopped was fatally shot and the gunman took that victim's vehicle, a silver SUV and carried on.
The gunman, who by now was driving a red Mazda 3 stolen from a woman he had killed in her home, stopped at a gas station in Enfield, N.S. A tactical officer, who had stopped to refuel, killed the gunman there.
