A gunman in Canada posing as a law officer has killed 16 people after a 12-hour shooting rampage across Nova Scotia within the worst act of slaughter the country has seen in modern world.
Several bodies were found inside and outdoors one direct the tiny, rural town of Portapique, police said, and a number of other homes were assault fire. Bodies were found at other locations and one law officer was also among the dead.
Officials said the gunman, named as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, died after shooting people in several locations across the province. By Sunday night, the toll had risen to 16, plus the gunman, who died during a standoff with police. Authorities believe he may have targeted the primary victims before occurring to commit random attacks.
Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation said that Wortman was driving the Royal Canadian Mounted police Car also wearing a uniform but later the authority got to know that he was driving Chevrolet SUV that have been modified and converted to police vehicle. Police also said that the suspect was neither an employee nor officer with the RCMP.
“Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia and it will remain etched in the minds of many for years to come,” said the RCMP commanding Offer, Lee Bergman.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, which has far tighter regulating laws than the U.S.
The massacre looked to be the worst of its kind since a gunman killed 15 women in Montreal in December 1989. A person driving a van deliberately ran over and killed 10 people in Toronto in April 2018 and a person shot dead six people at an Islamic cultural center in the provincial capital in 2017.
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Police haven’t provided a motive for the attack, which reportedly began within the small Atlantic coastal town of Portapique, about 130km north (80 miles) of Halifax, the metropolis. Online records show Wortman ran a denture clinic within the city of Dartmouth, across the water from Halifax.
Portapique residents said the primary they heard about the incident was late on Saturday when police urged everyone to remain indoors. Officers acquired a house after receiving multiple emergency calls and located “several casualties” inside and outdoors the residence. One local resident said she had bump into two burning police vehicles while out driving on Sunday morning. One man said he saw a minimum of three separate fires.
Sunday’s shooting also marks another grim milestone for the RCMP within the Maritime region. In August 2018, a person within the province of latest Brunswick, which borders Nova Scotia, shot dead four people, including two law enforcement officials, in an apartment complex. In June 2014, within the same province, a person shot dead three law enforcement officials.