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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the gunman killed at least 18./REUTERS.
A national virtual vigil will be held this week to honor nearly 20 victims of Canada's deadliest shooting as the province was locked down due to coronavirus. Virus restrictions continue and authorities said they would not be lifted to allow public gatherings to mourn victims.
Investigators on Monday scoured crime scenes to try to understand why a dental worker with no criminal past killed at least 18 people.
The gunman, identified by police as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, began his rampage late Saturday in the seaside village of Portapique, Nova Scotia, dying 14 hours later in a hail of police gunfire outside Halifax, 100 kilometers (62 miles) away.
Including the suspect, there are some 19 victims across 16 crime scenes, including five structure fires. RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leatherwarned that more bodies could be found in the rubble of five burned out homes and buildings.
Among the victims so far identified were a veteran constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nurse, an elementary school teacher, prison guards and a retired firefighter.Some of the victims were not known to the shooter, while others were specially targeted, said Leather.
"It's too early to tell what the motivation was," he said. "It appears to be, at least in part, very random in nature."
File photo: Nova Scotia gunman Gabriel Wortman. /AFP
The Nova Scotia rampage suspect
Media reports said the shooter was a denturist who owned clinics in Halifax and Dartmouth that were closed as part of the pandemic lockdown.
Wortmanwas also reportedly obsessed with policing, having refurbished several old squad cars, and struggled with alcoholism. His high school friend revealed that he aspired to be an RCMP officer. Those who knew Wortman told CTV News that he collected cars and motorcycles. He reportedly purchased two old police cruisers that were parked behind the denture clinic where he worked.
"He was one of those freaky guys, he was really into police memorabilia," Nathan Staples, who once sought to buy one of the vehicles, told The Globe and Mail, describing Wortman's home as a "shrine" to the RCMP.
Leather said the suspect's ability to move around the province was "greatly benefited" by the fact that he had a vehicle that looked identical in every way to a marked police car and that he was wearing a police uniform that was either a very good fabrication or an actual uniform.
Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) tactical unit confer after the shooting suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire. /AFP
Searching for the suspect
After the first gunshots rang out in Portapique, where Wortman owned two properties, police found casualties inside and outside a home and also responded to a series of blazes. Neighbors told The Globe and Mail newspaper that Wortman set fire to homes and shot residents as they ran out.
An acquaintance said Wortman drove to his house in a mock squad car, wearing a police uniform, and banged on the door clutching a rifle and a pistol.
"He wasn't killing enemies, he was killing his friends," said the man, who hid with his wife and called the police. "He was trying to beat down our door. It was beyond terrifying."
Two vehicles were also lit on fire on Highway 102. Constable Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the force and a married mother of two, died at the scene. A male officer suffered non-life-threatening wounds and was recovering Monday at home, Leather said.
An RCMP tactical team, a dog unit and officers from other police agencies eventually caught up with Wortman, who had swapped cars, at a gas station in Enfield, near Halifax airport.The gunman exchanged fire with policeand was killed in the shoot-out.
