New documents released Wednesday by the Committee on Massive Losses, which is leading the public inquiry into the April 2020 shootings, detail what is believed to have happened before and during the gunman’s death on April 19, 2020. The county chief medical examiner concluded that police shootings may have been what killed gunman Gabriel Vortman at the NS gas station in NS, according to records. The documents also provide more details about what happened a few minutes before, around 11:16 a.m., when the gunman stopped at another gas station but was not identified by a police officer who had arrived to fill up. The perpetrator was driving a Mazda 3 that had been stolen a few moments earlier than its last victim, Gina Gulet, when it crashed into a Petro-Canada in the community of Elsdale, near Anfield. At the same time, three RCMP police officers and the emergency response team rose to the opposite side of the same pump in Petro-Canada, pointing in the opposite direction. Surveillance footage from Elmsdale, NS, Petro-Canada shows the gunman at the gas pump opposite members of the emergency response team around 11:16 a.m. on 19 April 2020. (Mass Accidents Committee)
One of the officers, Const. Brent Kelly later told the committee that he spotted the man just meters away at the gas station – but did not think about it as he was wearing jeans and a white shirt. “I had a hard time with that for a while,” Kelly said. “That hit me.” At that point, police believed the gunman was dressed as Mountie and was still in the silver SUV he had stolen from victim Joey Webber, whom he had killed less than half an hour earlier. Kelly had no idea she had changed clothes when she stopped at Goulet’s house. The gunman at one point tried to stretch a gas line along the Mazda to refuel, but failed. A gas station clerk came through the intercom and told him to move to a different pump. Kelly noticed a “light blow” to the man’s left eye, but said “knowing the area… Sunday morning, I really did not pay much attention to a man with a gloss. I’m like, it ‘s not unusual.” The gunman then moved on to a pump farther away, but left immediately after taking no gas. Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19. Top left: Gina Gulett, Down Gulencin, Joulen Oliver, Frank Gulencin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
About seven miles south, Dorothy Rogers was working at the Irving Big Stop in Enfield that morning. She had learned from a friend about a man who shot people while dressed in a police uniform, driving a fake police car. Rogers knew the gunman had been spotted in Brookfield and was on his way, which was “worrying”. He then observed police officers with guns coming out of a light SUV at the pumps next to a small gray car. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, no, please no,’” Rogers told police later that day. He looked at the surveillance cameras and noticed more police officers in the surrounding area. “It all happened very quickly. Like, less than a minute, maybe 30 seconds,” said Alex Fox, who had pulled his motorcycle in front of the Big Stop shortly before filming began. Fox said he saw the vehicle carrying two RCMP officers stop next to the gray Mazda already at the pumps and men in green uniforms coming out. They shouted “show us your hands” or something like that before opening fire, Fox told police that day.

It is not clear how much time passed before filming

RCMP dog handler Const. Craig Hubley, who was driving the unmarked SUV, had quickly identified the gunman sitting in the Mazda next to him when he got on the pump at 11:25 a.m., less than a minute after the gunman arrived. Hubble recognized the gunman’s face and shouted at the police officer who was with him, Const. Ben MacLeod, that was the shooter. The MacLeod was moved to the front of the Mazda and through the windshield the gunman “looks me straight in the eye” and “reaches on purpose” to the right side of the car, he later told the commission’s investigators. The gunman then picked up a silver and black pistol, which officers identified as Const. Heidi Stevenson, who was killed by the perpetrator earlier in the day after being hit by a police cruiser. Both MacLeod and Hubley opened fire. The committee notes that there is some disagreement about exactly how much time has passed since Suburban and Hubley and MacLeod stopped pumping and when they started firing. The video surveillance footage from the gas station appears to last less than 10 seconds, while ERT’s radio channel reflects 18 seconds. The commission said it was investigating which record accurately represented the passage of time. RCMP officers at the Anfield gas station on April 19, 2020, shortly after the gunman was shot by police. (Tim Krochak / The Canadian Press)
A few minutes after that, a formation of members of the tactical group approached the car and pulled out the gunman. They nailed him to the ground and tied him with a zipper, as the documents say, before declaring him dead. Kelly was among the group and said that while he “wore a lot of guilt” that he had not stopped the gunman in Elmsdale, he was happy to find out that no one was injured between the two gas stations. He was also involved in the 2014 shootings in Moncton, NB, where three RCMP officers were killed and two wounded. That was difficult, he said, but in that case everything was headed to the Mountains – not “a bunch of very normal innocent people” who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

24 casings were collected from the tent

According to the research documents, 13 calyxes were found in the ground which was 9 mm. The commission believes that 12 came from Hubley’s Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistol and one from the Stevenson service pistol that the gunman had stolen after killing her. Eleven rifles were also found on the ground to match the MacLeod 300-caliber rifle, adding up to 23 shots fired by police. During an autopsy on the gunman’s body, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Matthew Bowes found a bruise and two bullet wounds to the head and dozens of wounds to the neck, chest, abdomen and both arms. Bowes found that one head injury was “suspected to have been caused by himself” and would be “severely debilitating”. However, he said it would not be “necessarily a direct cause of death”. Bowes said in his opinion that the gunman was killed by multiple gunshots to the organs. The second head injury was not fatal and was most likely caused by Stevenson’s shots at the Shubenacadie junction, NS, on the highway where he was killed, the commission said. Bowes agreed that this theory is reliable, as the sphere was launched from a distance and through glass.

Union says police criticism was “unfair”

Brian Sauvé of the National Police Federation, which represents thousands of RCMP members under the rank of inspector, said in a statement on Wednesday that the association expressed its deepest respect and gratitude to Hubley and MacLeod, whose many actions lives “. He said that in the two years following the massacre, “there was a lot of armchair and unfair criticism” of what the Mounties did or did not do during the 13 hours that the gunman was active. “We know that every member stood up to the circumstances, with the information available at the time, in an incredible and truly unthinkable situation, risking his life to protect others in his communities,” Sauvé said.