Inquiry records shed light on why RCMP didn't inform the public about N.S. mass shooting

Public inquiry documents are shedding light on the internal discussions RCMP officers had about what information they should share with the public about the unfolding active shooter situation in Nova Scotia in 2020. 

They also show that on April 19, amid the realization the gunman was at large and on the move, an RCMP communications officer became concerned for her own safety and that of a CBC crew set up near the makeshift command post in Great Village, N.S. 

Families of people murdered on the second day of violence have been adamant that had they known more about the danger — and that the gunman was driving what looked like an RCMP cruiser — their loved ones would have been at home and out of harm's way. 

Over the course of a 13-hour rampage that ended with 22 people dead, others injured and several homes destroyed, the Nova Scotia RCMP issued 11 tweets about the incident and shared similar information on its Facebook page. 

The Mass Casualty Commission has yet to release its summary of the RCMP's public communications but the records released to date show there was deliberation behind the scenes about which details were accurate enough to share with the public and a communications team was tasked with posting messaging to social media. 

Records released by the commission show that from the first hour of response, several police officers asked about the steps being taken to inform the public. 

Const. Stuart Beselt, the first officer on scene in Portapique, N.S., radioed his colleagues asking about the possibility of an emergency broadcast at 11:16 p.m. 

Staff at the Operational Communications Centre started calling residents to warn them to stay inside. To do so, they had to look up addresses and maps to try to locate phone numbers in their internal records systems. 

Cpl. Lisa Croteau told commission investigators that Sgt. Andy O'Brien called her around 11:30 p.m. — about 90 minutes after the first 911 call — and asked her to tweet out information about an ongoing situation in Portapique, N.S. After discussing what needed to be communicated, Croteau said she reviewed pre-translated wording. 

She posted that the RCMP were responding to a firearms complaint at 11:32 p.m. and advised people to avoid three streets in the community and stay at home with the doors locked. It did not mention that people had been killed or injured. 

That was the last time the Nova Scotia RCMP tweeted until 8:02 the following morning, at which point they wrote that officers remained in Portapique responding to an active shooter situation. 

Information about Gabriel Wortman's marked cruiser was shared with other police agencies around that time, but it wasn't made public for another two hours. 

That Sunday morning, news organizations were sharing information that the RCMP had posted on Twitter and Facebook. 

CBC producer Angela MacIvor emailed the two media liaison officers for information at 2:57 a.m. after seeing posts on social media and the firearms tweet before midnight. Shortly afterward she called Croteau, who told the inquiry she was still home and dozed off after speaking with O'Brien.