CANADA - shooter in RCMP vehicle & uniform, 22 killed (plus perp), Portapique, NS, 18 April 2020 #2

[Tilly23]

No, not red.

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Who was Gabriel Wortman, the denturist behind the Nova Scotia mass shooting?

In the presser yesterday, they definitely said her vehicle was a red Mazda 3.

The part where they mention it starts at 25:46

Maybe the picture in the national post article is showing the unmarked vehicle driven by the RCMP tac team?

MOO

 

[paganini]

There is a MSM article today (? TO Star) that reported he had offered her a job a year earlier and Ms Goulet had declined it.

 

[Lexiintoronto]

He showed up with one of the long guns at the home where the would be victim known to him hid inside and called 911. If his preferred weapon was an automatic or semi-automatic rifle when he was on foot and had both hands free, he probably could have done quite a bit of damage even under the influence.

I wonder if we’ll ever get a BAC measure from him. They would have to have drawn a sample pretty quickly. The combination of his known alcohol issue, the fact that it was Saturday night at a social gathering, the extreme conflict with his gf and the seemingly impulsive decision to set on a course from which there was no coming back makes me think there is a reasonable chance alcohol was a factor.

As far as training and practice go, he was almost certainly the type to desire and seek an expertise in shooting. I wonder how common target practice for fun would be in the Portapique area? Would gunshots be ignored or draw concern and investigation? Maybe some rural Nova Scotians could weigh in.

I live in a similar area on the Bay. It is comparable to Muskoka cottage country in Ontario.

Hearing gunshots is as unusual as it would be anywhere else. You’d call it in if you heard any, especially now during a SOE.

That’s why two neighbours in the Hunter Road area noted the time they heard shots (7:00 am, according to the Halifax Examiner.)

 

[Satchie]

In addition to being so lethal with his guns, he seemed to know how to commit arson. So many destroyed houses, two of which were destroyed on Sunday morning away from Portapique. I expect that all the houses were wooden structures and that since there are no gas lines in that area, many would be heating with propane in tanks but he must have known how to set these fires so successfully so that it took days to identify some of the remains inside. There was a reference in an article on the other thread to a land dispute with a neighbour perhaps over land boundaries and that a shed was burned down containing the neighbour's things.

Also, and this a very long shot: There is a reference to *** purchasing a piece of property adjacent to his Portland Street Office/Residence after the building had burned down and turning that into a parking lot. I can't find easy access to a report on that fire but maybe someone knows how to find the details of the fire and ***'s purchase of that property.

True, he burned down a lot of homes and a modern 3 or 4 bedroom home is much harder to burn than a small wooden shed.

Just anecdotal, but articles I've read about arson-caused major fires of modern homes, where the home is fully engulfed before firefighters arrive, often seem to be fed by multiple propane tanks. Just lighting fire to, eg, the main outdoor tank won't burn into the house fast enough. Smaller bbq type tanks are added, indoors. I'm sure this is part of the investigation.

 

[Satchie]

Unfortunately I agree. With the personality disordered, as IMO is the case with the perp here, they are sooo difficult to treat. Firstly, they have to want help, admit that the way they think of the world is disordered and really work hard on changing their perceptions.

When I look at this event, the vision that comes to mind is 'apocalypse now'. Like many rampage mass murders, it seems the person is in a state of mind that wants to create a literal hell on earth, with no intention of surviving it themselves. I think that's something very primal coming to the surface, some dark aspect of the person that's been buried, maybe repressed, deep down in the unconscious, for him to get along quite well in life for 51 years.

I don't think we know where it comes from. Even Hitler chose to die peacefully by suicide with his girlfriend by his side, rather than vent his rage on his companions and Berlin. It's very hard to say how the surface personality relates to this monster deep within.

 

[zencompass]

Natalie MacMaster's tribute to the youngest victim is especially poignant as Natalie plays her fiddle alongside a video of Emily Tuck playing the same tune a month before her life was taken.

This tribute represents the soulful heart and great beauty of east coast music, especially by Nova Scotians. I had to watch it more than once because of the tears streaming down my face.

This Is What Canada’s Broken Heart Sounds Like After N.S. Shootings

Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster and her daughter, Mary Frances, on the piano, were shown playing along with a video of 17-year-old Emily Tuck performing the waltz “In Memory of Herbie MacLeod.” Watch the video above.

“To my dear Nova Scotia, we are there with you in the deepest of ways,” MacMaster told her home province, before commenting on Tuck’s “beautiful performance” that had been circulating on social media in the days after the killings.

“She was a fiddler, so I thought I would unite myself to her performance and play this tune for all the souls who lost their lives,” she said.

 

[MistyWaters]

In the presser yesterday, they definitely said her vehicle was a red Mazda 3.

The part where they mention it starts at 25:46

Maybe the picture in the national post article is showing the unmarked vehicle driven by the RCMP tac team?

MOO

Interesting, thanks for the clarification and indeed you may be right.

 

[Errrr]

As far as training and practice go, he was almost certainly the type to desire and seek an expertise in shooting. I wonder how common target practice for fun would be in the Portapique area? Would gunshots be ignored or draw concern and investigation? Maybe some rural Nova Scotians could weigh in.

The targets he missed were those moving or not point blank.

 

[Errrr]

True, he burned down a lot of homes and a modern 3 or 4 bedroom home is much harder to burn than a small wooden shed.

Just anecdotal, but articles I've read about arson-caused major fires of modern homes, where the home is fully engulfed before firefighters arrive, often seem to be fed by multiple propane tanks. Just lighting fire to, eg, the main outdoor tank won't burn into the house fast enough. Smaller bbq type tanks are added, indoors. I'm sure this is part of the investigation.

What if you shot the intake line where it enters the house?

 

[Geddyp]

But wasn't he driving GG's red Mazda 3 by the time he showed up at the gas station?

The car at the gas station is the exact model/color (dark grey Mazda 3 hatchback) as the one that can be seen in a picture on GG's business' Facebook page. It is in the driveway in a picture of her house.

 

[Vern]

How would the shooter have known that the dead man's brother would come looking for him, leading the shooter to go and seek out said brother? Could it have been the shooter's gf who was also said to have been hiding in the woods whose 'flashlight' he'd seen? (Assuming the shooter thought his gf was still tied up at that point, so presumably the shooter also wouldn't have been looking in the woods for her either?)

I don't think the killer knew that. The brother who was looking was carrying a flashlight and was heading towards the fires to find his brother(that's where the brother had earlier headed). he came across his brother shot dead on the side of the road. Turned off his flashlight, now knowing there was someone actually shooting people, so he couldn't be seen and ran away. When he took to a little side road to catch his breath off the main road, that's when he looked back and could see the killer down where his dead brother was scanning the trees and sides or road looking for him.

I think the killer didn't "know", but saw the brother's flashlight in the dark standing over his dead brother. EC2 did the right thing turning his flashlight off and getting out of there when he did.

Shooters girlfriend was handcuffed. It's pretty amazing that she managed to escape having been beaten, handcuffed and tied up. She made it into the woods to hide when he was back at the party killing people (the beginning of the rampage). He was probably pissed when he got back to the house to find she'd managed to get away while he was gone. She stayed in the woods until 0630ish hours Sunday morning when the sun began to come up and she realized it was legit LE in the area.

 

[ab01]

The car at the gas station is the exact model/color (dark grey Mazda 3 hatchback) as the one that can be seen in a picture on GG's business' Facebook page. It is in the driveway in a picture of her house.

Yah it’s definitely not red, not sure why RCMP said that

 

[Maverick47]

I wonder how far in the bush she hid? If close enough to hear firetrucks and police vehicles why not come out and tell the police what her boyfriend/killer was driving then? Hindsight is 20/20 I know. She was the only witness left alive to give the description of what he was driving and wearing right? JMO

According to MSM reports and PC on Friday, GW severely beat her. The fact that she was able to escape is a miracle. She was fleeing for her life. Very few people have experienced that level of terror, i.e. knowing intimately what your assailant is capable of and trying desperately to not be found. To suggest that she should somehow have behaved in a self-sacrificing altruistic manner and ventured out of hiding, while injured and in pain, in absolute darkness towards LE vehicles when she knew full well that GW was driving one, just doesn't make sense.

 

[Tilly23]

Yah it’s definitely not red, not sure why RCMP said that

Well that just adds to the confusion, doesn't it?

Okay, well my point wasn't really that it was red, it was that it wasn't the silver Chevy Tracker that they would have been looking for. And if it's a dark grey Mazda 3, the point still applies.

So, he wasn't wearing a uniform and he wasn't driving the silver Tracker. It makes me wonder if there were other "tells" that made the RCMP Tac team sure they had the right guy. It would have been a horrible tragedy if they had shot somebody who just happened to look a little like GW. Did they confront him in some way before they shot him? Was the final "tell" that he went for his gun?

MOO

 

[Vern]

I agree. From experience, shooting a handgun accurately at a target more than 25yds requires both training, competency, and fine motor skills. Doing the same with moving targets, even more so. Even if sober, this is NOT an easy task, without extensive training and practice. If GW was under the influence of alcohol, IMO there would have been significantly fewer lives lost.

This leads to one of my (many) unanswered questions... If presented only with the body count and the lack of injured people, a logical conclusion is that the killer had extensive training. So, where did GW learn, train, practice handgun shooting, and with whom? Without his PAL license, it would not have been at an established range. There is a huge missing piece to this puzzle and I am certain that the RCMP investigation is actively pursuing the answer to this question also.

Can't legally own a gun without a PAL. But, can hunt and attend ranges if you are with someone who has a valid PAL. Here's a list of the ranges in NS (DNR ranges anyway). Anything in Colchester or Cumberland counties would be pretty easily doable for him as long as he had a PAL pal with him.

I actually think the ranhe at Oxford is closed. IIRC, at the cootage last summer when the son tried to book to take he and his buddy to there for the day, DNR stated that range had been closed. He went to Parsborro's River Hebert east range instead.

Alternatively, there's plenty of people with vast swathes of rural land using their own back yards. If I get down there this summer, I'll have to do a dash cam video driving through so you can see just how far you can drive with nothing but vast woods on either side of you (with trails throughout) with nary another vehicle or structure to be seen. If he wanted to practice, there's plenty of means, places and opportunity without being seen or heard in this area on NS … especially if one had no PAL and had to do so on the down low.

https://novascotia.ca/natr/hunt/Range_Locns.asp

 

[Vern]

Well that just adds to the confusion, doesn't it?

Okay, well my point wasn't really that it was red, it was that it wasn't the silver Chevy Tracker that they would have been looking for. And if it's a dark grey Mazda 3, the point still applies.

So, he wasn't wearing a uniform and he wasn't driving the silver Tracker. It makes me wonder if there were other "tells" that made the RCMP Tac team sure they had the right guy. It would have been a horrible tragedy if they had shot somebody who just happened to look a little like GW. Did they confront him in some way before they shot him? Was the final "tell" that he went for his gun?

MOO

What I saw in initial reports was that it was a silver SUV. If that's what was broadcast by the police, then it works.

 

[paganini]

According to MSM reports and PC on Friday, GW severely beat her. The fact that she was able to escape is a miracle. She was fleeing for her life. Very few people have experienced that level of terror, i.e. knowing intimately what your assailant is capable of and trying desperately to not be found. To suggest that she should somehow have behaved in a self-sacrificing altruistic manner and ventured out of hiding, while injured and in pain, in absolute darkness towards LE vehicles when she knew full well that GW was driving one, just doesn't make sense.

In addition, the police reported her still in shock when she was found. If the other fellow was hypothermic, probably she was as well. One of the ways men like this keep women with them is by threatening the women that if they leave, the male will kill [insert people like your kids, your parents, your best friend, etc.]. And, it had happened. During those hours in which her instinct was forcing to save herself, she must have wondered if she wanted to live the future in front of her.

 

[Vern]

Here's a great article with maps and timelines released by RCMP. As I suspected, Hwy 4 through Wentworth to Debert.
Nova Scotia shootings: The RCMP’s step-by-step account of what happened (full transcript) - Macleans.ca
Cluster 1: Saturday.
Portapique: (11:26 pm, April 18);

Cluster 2: Sunday.
Wentworth: (9:35 am, April 19)
Debert: (10:06 am, April 19)

Cluster 3: Sunday.
Schubenacadie: Constable Stevenson killed;
Milford: (10:49 am, April 19);
Enfield: (approximately 11:26 am, April 19, suspect killed by RCMP)

Great map in the following link as well.
RCMP release timeline on mass shooter, from assault on woman to his own death | The Chronicle Herald

 

[paganini]

<modsnip> a TO Sun article indicates it was "about a decade ago" that the father's brother, Glynn contacted him saying GW had said he was going to kill his mother and father. <modsnip> This is a link to an article from another journalist who spoke the the father.
WARMINGTON: Father of Nova Scotia mass killer heartbroken | The Chronicle Herald

 

[kmclaren]

Yes, thank goodness she survived for her sake but also for the information she was able to provide to the investigation. I don't even want to imagine how many more victims there could have been if there had been no ID, no description of him or his uniform, vehicle description, etc.

According to MSM reports and PC on Friday, GW severely beat her. The fact that she was able to escape is a miracle. She was fleeing for her life. Very few people have experienced that level of terror, i.e. knowing intimately what your assailant is capable of and trying desperately to not be found. To suggest that she should somehow have behaved in a self-sacrificing altruistic manner and ventured out of hiding, while injured and in pain, in absolute darkness towards LE vehicles when she knew full well that GW was driving one, just doesn't make sense.