RCMP say they were preparing an emergency alert to be sent to Nova Scotians when the gunman was shot and killed in Enfield on Sunday.
The police force has come under scrutiny from the public, especially from friends and family members of the 22 victims in this past weekend’s shooting spree, for not sending out an alert.
Premier Stephen McNeil said the province’s emergency management team was staffed to send out a message, but never received a request from RCMP to do so.
Instead, RCMP posted updates about the shooter’s whereabouts and other details to its Twitter account.
#RCMPNS is responding to a firearms complaint in the #Portapique area. (Portapique Beach Rd, Bay Shore Rd and Five Houses Rd.) The public is asked to avoid the area and stay in their homes with doors locked at this time.
— RCMP, Nova Scotia (@RCMPNS) April 19, 2020
#RCMPNS remains on scene in #Portapique. This is an active
— RCMP, Nova Scotia (@RCMPNS) April 19, 2020
shooter situation. Residents in the area, stay inside your homes & lock your
doors. Call 911 if there is anyone on your property. You may not see the police
but we are there with you #Portapique.
The first tweet came around 11 p.m. on Saturday, advising Portapique residents of a firearms complaint and to stay inside and lock their doors. The second tweet, warning of an active shooter, came just after 8 a.m. Sunday.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said RCMP started to draft an emergency alert after being contacted by the province’s emergency management team at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday.
“The original call to the RCMP was to one our members here at headquarters and you can appreciate, then there were a series of phone calls that had to be made to find the officer in charge on the evening and speak to the (incident commander) to have the conversation about the issuing of a message,” Leather said.
“So a lot of the delay was based on communications between the EMO and the various officers and then a discussion about … how (the message) would be constructed and what it would say.”
Before 10am Halifax time, I received an email from the US consulate in NS warning about an active shooter. (I’m in LA). pic.twitter.com/lNK868xgkS
— Maggie Stewart (@MagStewart) April 22, 2020
Maggie Stewart, who lives in Los Angeles, said in a tweet that she received an email from the U.S. Consulate at about 10 a.m., warning her of an active shooter in Portapique.
But Leather said using Twitter to communicate to the public about the shooter’s whereabouts allowed the information to be “shared, followed and broadcast by local, provincial and national news outlets.”
Until RCMP interviewed a key witness between 7 and 8 a.m. Sunday, Leather said they were unaware of the suspect’s identity or that he was wearing a police uniform and driving a mock police cruiser.
“Once that information was compiled, it was immediately tweeted by our communications section,” he said.
Investigation update
Also Wednesday, Leather said RCMP are close to sharing a timeline of the shooter’s movements through the province, but still have some gaps to work out.
Many questions asked by reporters, such as how the shooter’s weapons were obtained or how many died of gunshot wounds, were unable to be answered as “the investigation is very much ongoing.”
“Nova Scotians have a lot of questions about what happened, why it happened, what things were done and what wasn’t,” Leather said.
“You can be assured that we have those same questions and will be seeking answers through our investigation.”
Leather wouldn’t comment on other questions, such as if an RCMP officer “bumped” the suspect’s car or what firearms the shooter used, as they have been referred to SIRT.
RCMP have now determined the shooter acted alone during the deadly spree, but are looking for anyone who may have helped him in the events prior.
Anyone with information is asked to call 902-720-5959. If a caller gets the voicemail system, police ask they leave a name, number and detailed message, so an investigator can follow up.
“If you know something please call. Let our investigators determine the value of the information because that piece of information you have may be an important part of the puzzle for investigators,” Leather said.
