DARTMOUTH: The RCMP have issued an informative timeline of the events of last weekend’s mass shooting, which left 22 dead including incidents in the Shubenacadie and Enfield areas. It is the worse mass murder in Canadian history.
In the timeline, N.S. RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell, Support Services Officer, told media on April 24 that after the gunman—driving a replica police cruiser and dressed like a real cop–left Debert he headed toward Shubenacadie, where he would inflict more pain. He had terrorized the Portapique and Wentworth areas beforehand.
Enfield RCMP Const. Chad Morrison and Const. Heidi Stevenson were travelling in separate cruisers and had arranged by radio to meet at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 224, just a short distance from the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park.
Const. Morrison saw a marked police vehicle approaching and thought it was Stevenson. However, it was the gunman. The gunman then pulled up beside Const. Morrison and began shooting, hitting the Lantz father of two several times.
The officer retreated from the area, calling other officers and dispatch he was hit and heading to the EHS base in nearby Milford to seek emergency medical attention.
Meanwhile, Const. Stevenson was driving northbound on Highway 2.
Stevenson then encountered the suspect, and their vehicles collided head on.
“She realized it was the bad guy, and she rammed him, from my understanding,” head of the National Police Federation Brian Sauve told CTV News.
“I recognize she did something that probably saved countless lives. I don’t know, five, 10, 20, how far this guy was going to go,” he said.
The killer took Stevenson’s sidearm and ammunition.
Sadly, it was at this time that Joey Webber of Wyse’s Corner came upon the scene, and he stopped to help. The gunman killed Webber. He was out running an errand to Shubenacadie for his family.
After killing Webber, the gunman set both Stevenson’s cruiser and his replica vehicle on fire. He took Webber’s silver SUV and left the scene. He went south on Highway 224 before he is said to have entered the home of Gina Goulet, who police described as an acquaintance. He shot and killed Goulet.
It was at Goulet’s that the gunman removed his police clothing and transferred his weapons to Goulet’s vehicle, a Mazda 3. He then travelled south toward Enfield in Goulet’s vehicle.
The gunman stopped in the Mazda 3 at the Enfield Irving Big Stop. It was there that his reign of terror would come to an end.
“While he was at the gas pumps, one of our tactical resources came to the gas station to refuel their vehicle,” Campbell said at the press conference. “When the officer exited the vehicle, there was an encounter and the gunman was shot and killed by police at 11:26 in the morning.”
Campbell said a full review of the response will occur, but he offered a reason why an alert was not sent out earlier.
“They believed that they had that area contained,” Campbell said, adding police would have thought the suspect was still in the area or that he was dead inside his burned-out residence.
He said the fact that the suspect looked like a police officer was a complicating factor in tracking him down.
“I’ve been a police officer for almost 30 years now and I can’t imagine any more horrific set of circumstances than when you are trying to search for someone who looks like you,” Campbell said. “The dangers that that causes, the complications that that causes. That obviously was an advantage that the suspect had on police, had on the public and had on every person he encountered through the course of his rampage.”
