TRURO, NS –
A retired Mountie has described to his investigation his dismay because it was five hours before anyone told him about witnesses who had encountered a mass murderer while fleeing the 2020 shootings in Nova Scotia.
It was an example of the communication disruptions, along with the confusion over who was responsible for it, revealed on Thursday in a testimony before the public investigation into the mass shooting.
After nearly 40 years of service, Sgt. Al Carroll was a month away from retiring on April 18, 2020, when he was called to the detachment in Bible Hill, NS, where he was the senior service officer, as an active shooter was loose at the nearby Portapique. , NS.
Twenty-two people were killed by the gunman in his 13-hour run-off.
At 2 a.m. on April 19, Carroll said he had moved to a command post in Great Village, east of Portapique, and at 3:30 a.m. reported the three officers who entered. for the first time in the community.
Officers had met with Andrew MacDonald, who had been injured when the killer shot him, and his wife Kate MacDonald, when they fled the killer around 10:28 p.m.
The investigation first learned that MacDonald saw the killer and the replica of the RCMP car he was driving, and that Kate MacDonald told Const. Vicki Colford that there was another potential exit from Portapique.
He also spoke with the staff sergeant. Brian Rehill, the risk manager at the Truro Operations Communications Center at around 10.30pm, confirmed the suspect’s name and that he had shot them from “a police car”.
But Carroll, who was deploying agents and considering possible escape routes, was not informed of any of these events until the early morning briefing, as the Mountties continued to suspect that the killer was still at the scene. zone.
“Suddenly (Const. Aaron) Patton raised this Andrew MacDonald and that he (MacDonald) had been shot and I said, ‘What?'” Carroll said.
Roger Burrill, the lead lawyer for the investigation, asked why “this fundamentally important information” had not reached Carroll.
“I can’t explain how he never got us up,” Carroll replied, adding that Rehill had not informed him.
Carroll also said he did not listen to Colford’s 10:48 p.m. radio broadcast, saying: all.” The public investigation has said in summaries that the killer is believed to have slipped down a dirt road that police had not blocked around 10:45 p.m.
When asked if Colford’s information would have helped him, Carroll replied, “I’m sure he would.”
He disagreed with Burrill’s suggestion that there were “too many cooks in the kitchen” in the early hours of the response, arguing that he had made it clear that Rehill was responsible.
However, he admitted that having the sgt. Andy O’Brien, the non-commissioned officer, who arrived on the radio urging him not to send a second team of three officers surprised him, as he thought O’Brien was still at home.
“Could it have been a breach of the command structure. Should Andy (O’Brien) have made that decision? Should he have led him to jail,” he said.
Commissioner Leanne Fitch, a former police chief in Fredericton, later noted that the testimony had revealed “a considerable break in communication.”
Carroll also gave a new version of what happened around 9 a.m. on April 19, when a staff sergeant contacted him and suggested that a press release be issued on the police car replica. Carroll responded with an email saying the request had been denied.
He stated that he had contacted his superior, Sergeant. Steve Halliday, to discuss the matter, and it was decided that the release should not come out at that time.
However, in a testimony last week, Halliday said he had issued an order around 8 a.m. to publish the release “in the immediate future” and that he did not remember ordering Carroll or anyone else. which delayed release.
Carroll was answering questions using a Zoom call instead of attending in person as part of the accommodation that the three commissioners of inquiry granted him and two other large members this week. Unlike Carroll, the other two will avoid cross-examination by lawyers representing the relatives of the 22 victims.
That accommodation caused several lawyers to boycott the hearings on Wednesday, and the protest continued on Thursday.
BOYCOTT SURVEY OF VICTIMS ‘FAMILIES, PROTEST IN PLACE
Outside Truro’s courtroom, a dozen people protested on the sidewalk. Among them was Charlene Bagley, whose father, Tom, was shot dead by the gunman in early April 19, 2020, when he was walking through West Wentworth, NS.
“Families have been patient long enough,” Bagley said, holding up a neon green sign that said “23 reasons to tell the truth,” referring to the fact that one of the 22 victims was pregnant.
“We wanted answers and we wanted the truth … With the announcement of this week’s accommodation, it just shows that we will probably never get it.”
Bagley said the reported approach to the trauma of the investigation is wrong.
“Trauma for whom?” she asked. “They don’t think about the other people involved and their trauma, only the officers. Their trauma seems to outweigh that of others.”
The investigation has heard that the gunman, dental prosthesis technician Gabriel Wortman, 51, was shot dead by two assembly crews shortly before 11:30 a.m. on April 19 when he stopped. at a gas station north of Halifax to refuel a stolen car.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2022.