Michael MacDonald, Canadian Press Published Monday, April 18, 2022, 7:06 AM EDT Last Updated on Monday, April 18, 2022 7:06 AM EDT
HALIFAX – Two years after her father was shot dead by a man disguised as a mountaineer, Charlene Bagley remains convinced she would be alive today if the Nova Scotia RCMP issued a province-wide signal at the start of the killer’s rage.
“He used to check the news on Facebook,” Bagley said in a recent interview, recalling the morning of April 19, 2020, when her father, Tom, was killed. “It was his morning routine. But at that moment, they did not show the perpetrator’s face or anything like that.
The RCMP’s communication with the public during the 13 hours of the shooter’s freedom became a focal point for the commission of inquiry into the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, which claimed 22 lives on April 18-19, 2020.
After nearly eight weeks of public hearings, key questions remain about how and when Mounties shared information, including the first night the killer fatally shot 13 people in rural Portapic, NS, about 50 kilometers south of Bagley’s home.
The inquiry found that on April 18, 2020, at 11:32 p.m., the RCMP used Twitter to advise Portapice residents to lock their doors because police were investigating a “firearms complaint.”
This innocuous statement offered a small hint of the unfolding tragedy. At the time, the mountains at the scene knew that an active gunman had already killed at least two people, wounded another and set fire to a number of homes.
In addition, the suspect has not yet been found, officers have reported shootings and explosions, and a series of 911 calls revealed that the killer was driving a car that looked like a fully marked RCMP cruiser.
The inquiry heard that at least two Mounties, Const. Stuart Besselt and Staff Sergeant. Al-Karol suggested that the public be warned about what was happening. But that didn’t happen until the next morning.
Beselt, the first police officer to arrive in Portapik at 9:25 p.m., sent the following message on his police radio at 11:16 p.m., as the search for the killer continued: go into their basement and not go outside?
He was told that residents in the area were calling directly. No broadcast made.
As for Carol, District Commander of Colchester County, he told investigators that shortly before midnight he had advised his colleagues to “get something out there through our media communications … from Division H (Headquarters)”.
“They are our media people,” he recalled. “Contact them so they can get something out … through their normal channels,” including social media. But the RCMP did not send any other messages to the public tonight.
Michael Arntfield, a professor and criminologist at Western University in London, Ontario, said RCMP decision-making can be a slow process, especially when it comes to working with the public.
“Obviously there will be tactical decisions made on the move, but everything has to be put on the flagpole and then come back down if it involves any public communications,” he said.
“So even for something urgent and inevitably dangerous … they can’t give up on bureaucratic machinations. It’s like a paralysis of analysis. “
However, there is evidence that the RCMP had reason to be careful to release more information to the public, said Christian Leprecht, a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., Who specializes in police and security.
Although 911 callers received eyewitness accounts of an RCMP cruiser, investigators later found three decommissioned police cars belonging to the killer – two that were burnt remains near his property in Portapic and one still intact in Dartmouth, NS
At the time, police were unaware that the killer had escaped from Portapik with a fourth decommissioned cruiser that had been expertly modified to look identical to an RCMP cruiser.
“Ultimately, you have to confirm (the testimony), because if you give the wrong information, then you will make the situation worse,” Leuprecht said, pointing to the discovery of the three former police cars.
Arntfield, a former police officer, also said it was important to recognize that RCMPs in rural Nova Scotia are facing an unprecedented situation.
“You have a fluid, critical incident,” Arntfield said in an interview. “They had no precedent or training in dealing with this type of scenario.”
During the night, police shared key information about the suspect with their employees through internal communications known as BOLOs, an acronym for “Be On The Lookout.” But the audience was kept in the dark.
At 1:09 a.m., officers were warned of an “ongoing active shooter incident.” The alert identified the suspects, saying they were armed and dangerous and “connected” to an “old police car” that may have burned down in Portapice. Several similar messages were repeated in the wee hours of the morning.
The situation changed at 7:22 a.m. when the killer’s wife came out of hiding and revealed details of the fourth car and provided a photo of the vehicle. This important information was passed to the police at 8:04 am via BOLO, which said that the vehicle was loaded with weapons and “could be anywhere in the countryside”.
By 7:45 a.m. RCMP Headquarters Sgt. Adi McCallum was tasked with preparing a press release with the help of the RCMP’s media relations department. In a follow-up interview with investigators, McCallum said he had made it clear that the public should be told to “look for this car.”
At 8:02 a.m., nearly 10 hours after the shooter killed his first victim, Mounties tweeted announcing an “active shooter situation” in Portapic, for the first time the public received such a warning. But it does not mention the suspect’s escape car or that the perpetrator may be anywhere in the countryside.
The RCMP followed another tweet at 8:54 a.m., which identified 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman as the suspected shooter. His photo accompanies the tweet.
It was at this time that Tom Bagley left for his morning walk on Hunter Road in West Wentworth. Investigators believe the former firefighter was fatally shot by the perpetrator as he approached the burning home of neighbors Sean McLeod and Alana Jenkins. Police believe McLeod and Jenkins were killed in their home between 6:35 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Charlene Bagley said her father would have stayed home if a warning across the province had warned him of being an active shooter in the area.
“I guarantee you, my father would be here today,” she said. “Some guy goes around killing people and setting them on fire; I guess I would like to know how much longer it took for them to understand that a warning was needed.
RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson asked supervisors at 8:44 a.m. if they were considering spreading a press release about the cruiser’s replica, according to documents released by the investigation.
Sgt. Bruce Bryers, in notes to the inquiry, confirmed that the staff sergeant. Al-Carroll, the district commander in Colchester, responded to the request in an email at 9:08 a.m., saying: “We were considering releasing the vehicle, but it was decided not to do so.
Briars, the risk manager at the Center for Operational Communications at Bible Hill, NS, said: “Very well. Somehow I thought they might not want to be released. “
Stevenson died later that morning when the killer crashed his car into her cruiser. Before she was fatally shot, a police officer managed to shoot a bullet that hit the suspect in the right side of the head, injuring him, according to the investigation last week.
It was not until 10:17 a.m. that the RCMP sent a tweet showing a photo of the killer’s car, stating that the perpetrator may be wearing an RCMP uniform. This key warning came almost 12 hours after Mounties was first told about the vehicle and more than two hours after receiving the photo.
Mounties has also been criticized for using Twitter to issue warnings, given that the social media platform is less popular in rural areas.
“Citizens of Nova Scotia have a right to know if and when they are in danger,” lawyer Jane Lenehan said in an investigation last week. “The perpetrator posed a serious threat to their safety … but the vast majority of New Scots had not noticed the seriousness of the threat … Critical information was hidden.”
Lenehan represents the family of Gina Gulet, the last person killed by Wortman on April 19, 2020. She said many New Scots would have made different choices about their movement this morning if they had known about the threat the perpetrator posed.
That’s why the RCMP had to spread alerts across the province through the Alert Ready system, which sends emergency messages directly to TV screens, radio stations and wireless devices, she said.
The RCMP confirmed that when two Mounties fatally shot the killer at a gas station north of Halifax at 11:25 a.m., police were in the middle of drafting a preparedness message that was never sent.
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