Canada

Mistaken for mass killer, man recalls shot ‘like a sonic boom’ as RCMP fired at him

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HALIFAX — David Westlake is an unbelievably fortunate man who nonetheless wonders what saved him when two Mounties mistook him for a killer and opened fireplace.

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On the morning of April 19, 2020, the emergency administration coordinator was on the firehall in Onslow, N.S., as the hearth chief was welcoming folks evacuated from close by Portapique, N.S., the place a gunman had killed 13 folks the evening earlier than.

On the time, the killer was nonetheless at giant and his rampage wasn’t over. He would kill a complete of twenty-two folks earlier than being shot by police later that day.

At 10:17 a.m., as Westlake was chatting with an RCMP officer parked in entrance of the constructing, he watched in disbelief as a automotive screeched to a halt about 80 metres away and two males emerged with rifles. As each took goal at him, he made a touch for the firehall.

“I keep in mind a shot that seemed like a sonic increase after which one other one which was actually loud, and I’m transferring presently,” Westlake instructed a public inquiry investigating the worst mass capturing in fashionable Canadian historical past.

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The 2 shooters have been RCMP officers who mistakenly assumed Westlake was the killer, primarily as a result of he was sporting a yellow-and-orange reflective vest that matched the police description of what the suspect was sporting.

Westlake’s dramatic account of what occurred that day was given to an inquiry investigator on June 15, 2021. The discharge Monday of a doc that features excerpts from that interview marks the primary time the general public has heard Westlake’s model of occasions.

“Don’t ask me what deity had their hand on my shoulder that day and made certain it wasn’t my time,” Westlake mentioned within the interview.

The inquiry doc additionally highlights the confusion that RCMP officers confronted as they pursued the killer for greater than 100 kilometres. Two Mounties fatally shot him at a fuel station north of Halifax at 11:26 a.m.

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As for Westlake, he mentioned he nonetheless couldn’t imagine he escaped together with his life, although the shut name had not damage his sense of humour.

“I used to be only a fats man within the mistaken place on the mistaken time sporting a vest,” he instructed the inquiry investigator. “I’ve by no means had malice to the 2 people that pulled the set off. I wish to meet them. I wish to ask them how they missed, as a result of I can’t cover behind phone poles.”

Nonetheless, the doc raises awkward questions for the RCMP, which has mentioned little concerning the almost-lethal blunder.

Simply earlier than Const. Terry Brown and Const. Dave Melanson confirmed up in Onslow, Westlake was standing within the entrance lot speaking to RCMP Const. Dave Gagnon, who was behind the wheel of a marked cruiser, a car virtually equivalent to the getaway automotive being utilized by the killer.

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Each Brown and Melanson instructed inquiry investigators they didn’t see Gagnon within the automotive.

Earlier than the 2 officers jumped out of their unmarked Nissan Altima, Melanson tried a number of instances to make use of a police radio to report what they have been seeing. However as an alternative of getting a transparent sign to broadcast, Melanson mentioned the radio “bonged,” which meant that the frequency had been jammed by too many customers.

The Severe Incident Response Group, Nova Scotia’s police watchdog company, launched a report in March 2021 that cleared each officers of any wrongdoing. It concluded the officers had cheap grounds to imagine that they had the killer of their sights, and that they discharged their weapons “to forestall additional deaths or critical accidents.” The unbiased company additionally drew consideration to the jammed radios.

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Melanson mentioned he, like Brown, believed the person within the reflective vest was the killer. “I’ve received my carbine on the man and I’m yelling to him, ‘Present me your arms!”‘ Brown instructed the inquiry’s investigators final month.

“And he’s taking a look at me after which he geese behind the automotive, and I used to be certain he was getting a gun. And I believed he was going to kill us. I believed he was going to kill others …. And he began operating.”

Westlake, nevertheless, instructed investigators he didn’t hear anybody say, “Present me your arms.” He mentioned the one factor he heard, except for gunshots, was somebody saying, “Get down!”

As nicely, eight folks dwelling close to the firehall instructed investigators about what they noticed that day, and none of them reported listening to anybody say, “Present your arms!”

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In all, investigators discovered Brown fired 4 rounds at Westlake, and Melanson fired as soon as. Two rounds pierced one of many station’s storage doorways and broken a hearth truck inside. A 3rd spherical hit a roadside signal and one other hit the aspect of the firehall. The fifth spherical hit a stone monument close to the door that Westlake used to flee.

As for Gagnon — the constable within the cruiser — the doc says he tried to make use of his radio to alert the opposite two officers about his identification, saying, “You guys are pointing your weapons at me.” However the transcript from the broadcasts that day counsel the transmission didn’t get by.

All that was recorded was Gagnon saying: “You bought that — Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” and “Who’re you capturing at? It’s Gagnon!”

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When the capturing stopped, Gagnon emerged from his car together with his arms up. After a quick alternate with the 2 different officers, he and Melanson went contained in the station, the place Westlake instructed them nobody had been injured.

Neither Brown nor Melanson checked on the others contained in the firehall, who included fireplace Chief Greg Muise, Deputy Chief Darrell Currie and evacuee Richard Ellison, whose son Corrie had been murdered in Portapique.

Westlake would later recall that he had noticed an RCMP cruiser with a black push-bar on the entrance driving previous the firehall at 10:07 a.m. That car matched the outline of the killer’s car, however the RCMP didn’t launch that info to the general public till they despatched a tweet at 10:17 a.m. — roughly the identical time the unmarked automotive arrived on the firehall.

There’s no indication that Gagnon noticed the suspect’s automotive.

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