Portapique investigation: miscommunication between Truro police and RCMP

This lack of cooperation has resulted in many questions from residents and those who have lost loved ones.

Many are wondering why the Truro police were not called earlier to set up roadblocks.

On Monday, the inquest at public hearings was to examine the role of the Truro Police Service and communications between the two police forces.

Truro Police Chief, Dave MacNeil, must testify about the circumstances.

The only direct involvement of the municipal police during the tragedy was to send officers to monitor the entrance to the hospital following a request from the emergency department.

During the search, the hospital remained closed until morning and Truro police guarded the entrance.

A few minutes after the call from the hospital at midnight, a corporal from Truro called RCMP for the first time. About an hour later, an RCMP dispatcher called again to let them know they were responding to an active shooting situation and the suspect was tied to a former police cruiser.

Between 1 am and 9 am, the RCMP five times called the Truro police to convey the information gathered and sent three warning bulletins to the police services in the province.

A such notice sent after 8 am describes the replica police cruiser and explains that Gabriel Wortman perhaps arrested for murder and that he was armed and dangerous.

Confusion in communications

Truro Police Chief, Dave MacNeil sent an email to the two top officials of RCMP at 8:50 am to offer them help.

The Superintendent Chris Leather responded at 10 a.m. saying they believe the suspect was found in Wentworth.

But at 10 a.m. the shooter was in Debert, Nova Scotia, even closer to Truro, where he was killed. Heather O’Brien at Kristen Beatontwo nursing colleagues in separate vehicles on the road Plains.

The shooter drove to Truro and continued south toward Halifax. There he wounded an officer RCMP and that he killed three other men: Constable Heidi Stevenson, Joey Webber and Gina Goulet.

The email of Chris Leather came while Truro Police were talking about calling more back-up officers. About 20 minutes ago, an RCMP dispatcher indicated that the suspect may be heading to town. So the email changed the team’s perspective.

We took a little deep breath and thought the deal was donesaid Dave MacNeil in his interview with the Mass Casualty Commission in August 2021. The decisions I made were based on that email.

For Truro police, it is not clear where the shooter was seen and they have not received a clear assignment from the RCMP.The information we get is not clear and it makes no sense to us.said Dave MacNeil to investigators.

The police department still asked officers working in the morning to drive around town and tell people walking around to come back inside. Most businesses were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but dispatchers tried to call larger open stores to let them know of a situation in the county.

Request for RCMP roadblocks

At 10:37 am, an RCMP dispatcher called a Truro dispatcher to request that the municipal police Locked the city.

By that time the shooter had already passed through the town center of Truro, but not a single police service knew anything about it.

When Truro’s agent asked for clarification on the lockout, the dispatcher from RCMP proposed to make road barriers on the main road.

Dave MacNeil believe it will help to have more specific details on where to set up a roadblock.

The Truro Chief Constable was unaware that the shooter had crossed the town center of Truro until RCMP published surveillance images of replica police vehicles captured by commercial surveillance cameras.

These photos were made public at a press conference nearly a week after the hunt.

Dave MacNeil felt “caught by the guard” and would have appreciated a warning from RCMP.

With information from Elizabeth McMilan ng CBC