The gunman behind the worst mass shooting in our country’s history was spotted several times after he killed 13 people and escaped from Portapique, N.S. on April 18, 2020.
Witness Valerie Smith told police days after the murders took place she saw a “strange” police car with push bars on the front driving around Debert late that night.
It was Gabriel Wortman, as he rode around in his mock cop car. As many as five people in Great Village and Debert reported seeing the suspicious looking vehicle driving around without its lights on.
“I thought it was like around quarter after eleven, there was a marked RCMP car come from down in Portapique with no headlights on, no tail lights, no noth – no lights, just the running lights on and I hollered at my boyfriend, I said, ‘What the hell, why is there a marked cop car coming back,’ I say, ‘All the other cop cars are going to Portapique, why is this car coming back this way with no lights on, only running lights?”
However, Smith and others were unaware of what had taken place about 20 minutes away in Portapique and they never contacted police.
RCMP had only four vehicles with push bars in their fleet at the time, three were SUV’s and the other cruiser was in Kings County.
Wortman spent the night in an industrial park before leaving just before 6 a.m. on April 19.
Two teens were in a field close by listening to music and saw the replica police car circling around in the business park in Debert.
They also spotted the bars on the front of the vehicle – and – a tree branch sticking out of the hood.
“And then we were just hanging out there, and then once it was like, twelve thirty, like almost one, uh, we saw a patrol car come down, like, down Ventura Drive. And then he did a couple laps and didn’t look like a actual like, it did but there was like some things off, and he just wasn’t acting like a police officer …
’Cause he was like, going on the side of the road, kind of pulling off like every like, couple metres, checking things out. And then we saw him go down, like in the base. I … I think he was just scoping out stuff. And after, like, after that, I started to walk home, ’cause it was getting late. And I saw him do a couple more laps.“ – Teen statement to police contained in documents released on Wednesday, March 8
The owner of the industrial park called police after he checked out his property on April 19 and discovered ammunition packaging, slippers, a gun belt and RCMP high brown boots with Wortman written inside them.