Police responding to one of Canada’s worst mass shootings nearly shot the wrong man, officers have said during a public inquiry examining the attack and authorities’ chaotic response.
Testifying on Monday at a public inquiry into the 2020 attack in the town of Portapique, Nova Scotia, which left 22 dead, three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers said the scene resembled a “war zone” and that they were unprepared for the number of casualties.
At one stage, amid the sound of gunfire and with thick smoke pouring from burning houses, they pursued a man fleeing into the forest.
But the man was not the perpetrator, Gabriel Wortman. Instead, the officers were mistakenly pursing Clinton Ellison, who had just discovered the body of his brother, Corrie Ellison, lying dead on the road. The pair had been in Portapique visiting their father and had ventured outside after hearing a gunshot.
“We were getting ready to shoot him,” said constable Stuart Beselt. “If he would’ve ran, we would’ve shot him … I’m very thankful I didn’t shoot.”
Fearing he was being stalked by the shooter, Ellison turned off his flashlight and hid in the woods for hours. The officers soon pulled back, fearing they could themselves be targeted by the shooter.
“It would be suicide,” said Beselt. “It was self-preservation at that point.”
Officers did not learn until two days later that Ellison was not the gunman.
The statements from constables Beselt, Adam Merchant and Aaron Patton mark the first time key witnesses have testified under oath at the province’s mass casualty commission.
Wortman’s 13-hour rampage on 18-19 April 2020 ended when he was shot dead by police. But questions over the emergency response have persisted – not least why the RCMP leadership failed to issue an emergency alert, warning residents of the gunman.
The union representing the officers initially said testifying would re-traumatize them, but police agreed to answer questions from the commission after mounting public pressure for answers into the early hours of the response.
The three officers said they initially assumed the shooter was driving a decommissioned vehicle, possible with old decals, after receiving reports that a “police car” was spotted in the area.
Instead, they soon realized he was in a near-perfect replica of their own vehicles, equipped with emergency lights.
Beselt said if they had encountered the replica cruiser at night, they would have hesitated to open fire on the killer, not knowing if they were shooting at a colleague.
“We would have been shot,” Beselt said. “There’s no doubt he would have gotten the jump on us.”
Patton said one of the most difficult decisions that night was leaving four children, whose parents had been killed, in a basement as they searched for the shooter.
Officers told them to lock the doors and hide until police returned.
“That was the single hardest decision we made that night,” he said. “We were worried non-stop after leaving the house that something was going to happen to those kids.”
The commission will continue on Wednesday, with a timeline of the gunman’s actions early on 19 April, as well as testimony from a civilian witness.
