Emotional testimony at the Nova Scotia mass shooting inquiry on Wednesday from a former Portapique resident.
Deborah Thibeault recalls when she informed RCMP a private blueberry field road offered a fast way out of the neighbourhood.
“We told them how to get out of there, the road out, the blueberry field. We gave names of the people in there,” She testified. “We were looking for everybody, wanting to know who was alive, we gave all the names, where they lived.”
Investigators believe the gunman used the dirt road to escape on the night of April 18th, 2020.
Thibeault says when she left the community during the day the entrance to the road was still blocked with posts and a rope.
The southern access point to ‘blueberry field road,’ looking east of Cobequid Court. (Photo was taken from GoPro footage filmed by Mass Casualty Commission on August 23, 2021)
She adds when she returned in the days after the shootings she noticed a post had been broken off with the rope still attached, laying on the ground.
Thibeault also testified she saw her neighbour Gabriel Wortman on that road once in the months prior to the killings.
He was spotted on a bicycle examining the route.
Aerial photo of Portapique, May 13, 2020. (SOURCE: Mass Casualty Commission)
Mass Casualty Commission releases more details about shooter’s actions on April 19th, 2020
Nova Scotians are also learning more about the actions of the gunman on the second day of his shooting rampage.
The Mass Casualty Commission has released documents showing police did not know Gabriel Wortman had resumed his attack on April 19th, 2020.
Police were unaware he had escaped Portapique, spending the night in Debert, until that morning.
Most Nova Scotians also remained in the dark about the chaos that had unfolded when the next day broke.
Frantic 911 calls started coming in at around 9:30 a.m. from residents in the Wentworth area, about 55 km away from Portapique.
They reported gunshots, explosions, and a fire at a neighbour’s home.
Surveillance camera footage shows the shooter arrived at the home of Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins on Hunter Road at around 6:30 a.m.
Surveillance video from a nearby residence on Hunter Road – Timestamp shows 6:29 a.m. (SOURCE: Mass Casualty Commission)
Investigators believe they were fatally shot there before the house was set on fire.
They also believe neighbour and retired firefighter Tom Bagley was killed when he went to check on the house to try and help.
He had left for his morning walk at 8:50 a.m. Bagley’s wife says he had checked Facebook and the news before he left.
The RCMP had issued a Tweet about an hour before advising residents in the Portapique area to stay inside due to an “active shooter” in the area. They said police remained on scene.
The killer is believed to have fled the McLeod-Jenkins property at around 9:20 a.m.
Wortman killed 22 people during his thirteen-hour rampage while disguised as an RCMP officer driving a mock cruiser.
The inquiry is examining if more could have been done to save lives and prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
It resumes on Thursday morning.
