Twenty-seven minutes. That’s how much time passed during which a written tweet sat on a computer screen before someone pressed “tweet” to make it public. The prepared tweet read: “#Colchester: [perpetrator’s name] may be driving what appears to be an RCMP vehicle & may be wearing an RCMP uniform. There’s 1 difference btwn his car […]
Here’s all the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020
Articles Twitter threads April 2020 was a difficult time in Nova Scotia. A strange new virus was loose in the world, and no one knew what would happen. Nova Scotia was under lockdown — restaurants and bars were closed, schools were online, health orders prohibited people from gathering socially, and the disease had entered […]
Time for a serious rethink of the Serious Incident Response Team?
A mentally disturbed man holding a pellet gun is shot and killed by police who mistook it for a handgun. The officer who killed him fired when the man pointed his fake gun at police after another officer had fired a rubber bullet at him and missed... There must be better ways to handle these cases. Just don't ask SIRT to suggest those ways.
On July 9, 2020, the RCMP responded to a “call of an armed man who was uttering threats” at a home where he lived with his mother in Eastern Passage. “When police arrived,” the Mounties said in a news release after the incident, “they located the man, a 60-year-old from Eastern Passage, armed with a […]
This is why the Halifax Examiner keeps going to court
Morning File, Wednesday, May 20, 2020
News 1. New info on mass shooting Yesterday, I wrote two articles about the April 18/19 mass murders. One is “Court document provides new info on mass murder,” which provides new information about what happened in Portapique that terrible Saturday night and a chilling eyewitness account to the murders of Cst. Heidi Stevenson and Joey […]
Murderer escaped Portapique within 10 minutes of police arriving
RCMP Support Services Officer Darren Campbell provided an update today on the investigation into the April 18-19 massacre across Nova Scotia. New information includes: • 435 witnesses have been identified, and about half of them have been interviewed; • it’s not known if anyone assisted the murderer, who we’re calling “GW,” in planning or preparing for […]
Portapique tragedy: We need a full public inquiry
It isn't about assigning blame. But there are questions we need to answer, and it isn’t good enough for the RCMP to conduct an internal investigation into what happened and why, and then tell us what they decide we’re allowed to know.
Late on the afternoon of Sunday, April 19, I sat in front of my television waiting for an RCMP briefing I fully expected would help me make sense of the confusing cascade of disjointed, disconcerting, increasingly frightening news bytes and bulletins that had tumbled out and over one another all that day. I’d woken to […]
These are the 22 people murdered in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020
Lisa McCully Lisa was a school teacher who was instrumental in keeping the Debert Elementary School open; Gina Goulet Gina was a denturist in Shubenacadie, a two-time cancer survivor, avid sport fisher and Cuban salsa dancer. “She really loved life,” her daughter Amelia Butler told the Globe and Mail. “She was a fighter.” Gina had two […]
“There’s a person down there with a gun”: first responder audio from the beginning of the murder spree
The Halifax Examiner has obtained audio of first responders responding to the call to Portapique Saturday night, soon after the mass murder spree began. This audio clip starts at about 11:08pm Saturday night. Here’s a rough transcript of that audio: So there’s a structure fire. There’s a person down there with a gun. They’re still […]
There are 22 victims in the weekend murder spree
An RCMP statement about the the tragedy is vague and misleading.
The number of victims in last weekend’s mass murder rampage is 22. Additionally, the RCMP says other people were injured, but the police are not saying how many others, or who they are. That information comes from an RCMP statement issued Tuesday afternoon. As written, the release says that “We believe there to be 23 […]
RCMP investigator: There are “in excess of 19 victims” in Nova Scotia’s mass murder rampage
Police have confirmed that there are now “in excess of 19 victims” in yesterday’s mass murder rampage in Nova Scotia, said Chris Leather, the chief investigative officer for the RCMP in Nova Scotia. The Halifax Examiner has identified 15 of the victims. However, Leather said there are 16 crime scenes in Portapique and other northern […]