Canada shooting: 16 killed in Nova Scotia in deadliest such attack in country’s history

Police officer and the suspected gunman among dead after 12-hour shooting rampage in Nova Scotia

Killings were worse than a mass shooting in 1989 where a gunman murdered 14 students in Montreal college

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The suspect was arrested at a petrol station in Enfield, just outside Halifax. Police later announced that he had died. Photo: AP

Published: 4:13am, 20 Apr 2020Updated: 8:21pm, 20 Apr 2020

A man disguised as a police officer went on a shooting rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday, killing 16 people, in the deadliest such attack in the country’s history. Officials said the suspected gunman was shot dead by officers after a 12-hour manhunt.

A police officer was among those killed. Several bodies were found inside and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 100km north of Halifax. Overnight, police began advising residents of the town – already on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic – to lock their doors and stay in their basements. Several homes in the area were set on fire as well.

Police identified the man believed to be the shooter as Gabriel Wortman, 51, who was thought to live part-time in Portapique. They said he wore a police uniform at one point and made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser. Authorities believe there might be an initial motivation for the attack but then it turned to randomness, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told Canadian media.

The suspected gunman Gabriel Wortman. Photo: AFP

Police first announced that they had arrested Wortman at a petrol station in Enfield, outside Halifax. “The search for the suspect ended this morning when the suspect was located. And I can confirm that he is deceased,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a press conference.

“The initial search for the suspect led to multiple sites in the area, including structures that were on fire,” Leather told the news conference. “There are several locations across the province where persons have been killed.”