The gunman was identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman. He was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, northwest of downtown Halifax. It was later announced that Wortman had died.
“In excess of 10 people have been killed,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said. “We believe it to be one person who is responsible for all the killings and that he alone moved across the northern part of the province and committed what appears to be several homicides.”
The RCMP says that there may be more victims who have not been discovered yet, and the investigation is continuing. Brian Sauvé, President of National Police Federation union, said Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the RCMP was among those killed in a shooting and another was injured. “Our hearts are heavy with grief and sadness today as we have lost one of our own,” Suave said.
The senseless shooting rampage apparently started in the small rural town of Portapique. Mike MacKay, who lives just off the Glooscap Trail in Portapique said he saw police cars on the Portapique Beach Road around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, across the river from his home
“We saw a fire down the road and thought that’s all that it was. Then we saw a second fire and a third fire,” said MacKay in a phone interview with CBC Canada from his home Sunday morning.
Cpl. Lisa Croteau, a spokeswoman with the provincial force, said police received a call about “a person with firearms” at around 10:30 p.m. Saturday and the investigation “evolved into an active shooting investigation.”
Police advised residents to lock their doors and stay in their basements. Residents also reported a number of building and vehicle fires, but police didn’t immediately confirm details.
Earlier Sunday, according to the Associated Press, the RCMP said the suspect was driving a car that looked like a police vehicle and wearing a police uniform, but later said he was “believed to be driving a small, silver Chevrolet SUV,” traveling southbound on a highway.
“I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia,” Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil. “This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history.”
