Slain RCMP officer went down in a gunfight with Nova Scotia mass shooter, inquiry hears

Const. Heidi Stevenson grabbed her pistol and started taking pictures at Nova Scotia’s mass killer after he rammed her car head-on, with the RCMP officer managing to fireside 14 pictures and injure the gunman’s head earlier than she was killed.

New paperwork launched Monday element what the fee main a public inquiry believes occurred at Shubenacadie, N.S., on April 19, 2020, when the gunman, who was disguised as a Mountie and had already murdered 19 individuals, shot and injured RCMP Const. Chad Morrison after which killed Stevenson and bystander Joey Webber.

All three have been shot within the area of seven minutes, earlier than the killer took off. The main points of what occurred are specified by interviews, radio logs and 911 transcripts gathered by the Mass Casualty Fee.

“The entire thing, it was … robust. It hit me, hit me fairly arduous,” Sgt. Darren Bernard, one of many first officers to seek out Stevenson’s physique, stated in an interview with RCMP in July 2020.

The fee is tasked with analyzing the occasions of April 18 and 19, 2020, when Gabriel Wortman killed 22 individuals, together with a pregnant lady, throughout the course of a 13-hour rampage by way of a number of rural communities.

Stevenson was essentially the most senior member on obligation on the RCMP’s Enfield, N.S., detachment on the morning of April 19, and directed the place her workforce members ought to go as shift supervisor.

All through the morning Stevenson noticed the messages despatched out to all RCMP members concerning the gunman’s identification, that he was thought of armed and harmful, and doubtlessly utilizing a Ford Taurus that regarded like a totally marked RCMP cruiser.

Round 8:15 a.m. Workers Sgt. Bruce Briers, the chance supervisor on the Operational Communications Centre in Bible Hill, N.S., broadcast on the Hants East radio channel that each one members ought to put on their arduous physique armour throughout their shift “simply within the occasion you come throughout this car.”

A couple of half-hour later, Stevenson requested over the police radio whether or not a media launch had been issued concerning the gunman’s mock cruiser so the general public might “be looking out for that.”

RCMP finally despatched a tweet, alerting the general public at 10:17 a.m.

At 10:39 a.m. Briers requested for 2 Enfield members who have been skilled to make use of carbine rifles to go to Colchester. Stevenson had failed the course when she’d taken it two years earlier, so she despatched constables Austin Comeau and Chris Gibson. 

A couple of minutes later, Stevenson heard on the radio an unknown marked cruiser had been noticed in the neighborhood of Brookfield.

“Chad, if there’s something to that final one, I am gonna make my technique to your place,” Stevenson stated over the radio at 10:44 a.m. to Morrison. She headed south on Freeway 215 towards Shubenacadie the place he was parked.

Morrison shot by gunman

Morrison was sitting on the intersection of a aspect highway simply north of the Shubenacadie River and Freeway 2 when he noticed a cruiser coming towards him, driving south. 

He had his carbine sitting within the passenger seat beside him, and had simply pulled on his physique armour. Morrison requested over the radio who was approaching his location, and Stevenson replied it was her, which put Morrison comfortable.

However the gunman was the truth is behind the wheel, and become the aspect highway the place Morrison had pulled again to do a U-turn. He pulled up alongside Morrison’s automotive, and there was “a one- or two-second freeze the place I went, that is not Heidi.”

The gunman shot Morrison from his mock cruiser a number of instances at 10:48 a.m., and Morrison later informed police he began screaming as he hit the fuel and sped away into Freeway 2. He hit each guardrails earlier than straightening out and heading south.

“Glass was breaking and I used to be listening to issues go off and I felt … one thing in my chest and I felt like, issues taking place in my arms and I do know I had this gash on my face,” Morrison stated.

Morrison radioed that he’d been shot by the suspect in a police cruiser, and when requested about his accidents stated, “I do not know what; I am–I am OK.” He took the western ramp of the freeway interchange into Shubenacadie and went to the Emergency Well being Companies base in Milford.

Stevenson and shooter have gunfight

Stevenson by no means made it to Morrison. When she entered the Shubenacadie interchange, taking the ramp from the village as much as Freeway 2, the gunman crossed over the oncoming lane to enter the one-way ramp and crashed into Stevenson’s police automotive at 10:49 a.m.

Stevenson and the gunman every fired at one another, and 14 casings from Stevenson’s service pistol have been later discovered on the ground of her automotive. The fee stated whereas witness testimonies battle on whether or not Stevenson left the automotive on her personal or was pulled out by the gunman, forensic proof suggests she had exited her car and was going through within the course of the perpetrator throughout the change of gunfire.

The radio she wore was activated at 10:49:40 a.m. in addition to three different instances after the collision, with sounds of gunfire transmitting twice between 10:49 a.m. and 10:50 a.m.

Throughout this time the gunman was doubtless struck within the head with bullet fragments and particles from Stevenson’s return hearth, the fee paperwork stated.

The RCMP officer who later noticed the gunman at a fuel station in Enfield and killed him seen a small trickle of blood working down the person’s brow.

Elaine Mosher-Whitman and her husband, Gerald Whitman, watched the gunman’s shootout with Stevenson from their home close by and took images. At one level Mosher-Whitman stated she noticed Stevenson run again to her automotive “and there was taking pictures, and she or he fell.”

The gunman approached Stevenson and shot her at shut vary as she lay outdoors her police automotive, earlier than taking her pistol and two magazines. He didn’t take her transportable radio.

Webber, the gunman’s subsequent sufferer, was out getting furnace oil and was making his approach by way of Shubenacadie when he stumbled on Stevenson and the shooter.

He stopped and received out of his SUV, performing as a “Good Samaritan,” in accordance with witness Elizabeth Small, who had been driving by together with her husband and stopped once they noticed the cruisers collide.

A number of witnesses reported seeing the gunman direct Webber into the again seat of his mock cruiser, the place he shot him. The gunman then moved all his weapons to Webber’s SUV, and took fuel cans out of his mock cruiser and set it on hearth.

“I by no means seen somebody that regarded so informal in my life,” Dean Martin, who had watched from his residence simply north of the scene, informed police concerning the gunman. “It is like, wasn’t getting excited, he wasn’t, he was simply kinda taking it out, prefer it was a mean day.”

At 10:55 a.m. the gunman left the interchange in Webber’s silver SUV and headed south on the western prong of Freeway 224.

Simply two minutes later, the police emergency response workforce arrived and located Stevenson. They decided she was useless, and moved her physique additional down the ramp so it was away from the 2 cruisers on hearth.

Witness Craig van der Kooi had been one of many individuals watching because the gunman killed Stevenson and Webber, and had taken images of the silver SUV the gunman stole from Webber. He shared the images with the tactical workforce members once they arrived, and informed them it was an older mannequin SUV like a Chevy Tracker, though it was the truth is a Ford Escape. 

The officers determined they needed to preserve chasing the gunman, and took off. 

Officers stick with Stevenson

Sgt. Darren Bernard of Millbrook was the subsequent officer to reach at 11:04 a.m., simply forward of Enfield officers Comeau and Gibson. He stated later he hadn’t heard something about emergency response members being on the scene, however discovered it arduous to listen to something as a result of the radio was “full chaos.”

When he rolled as much as the interchange ramp, there was smoke all over the place, the grass was on hearth and it was very arduous to see, Bernard stated. He added they could not method the cruisers as a result of blasting warmth of the fires.

Comeau noticed a physique on the bottom, and Bernard acknowledged Stevenson, who’d been his buddy for 25 years.

“I stated, ‘Jesus Christ, it is Heidi,'” and thought, “Did that fu–ker shoot her right here?'”

Bernard felt for Stevenson’s pulse and carried out CPR, however after seeing her wounds realized “she was gone.”

Bernard sat beside Stevenson’s physique for a while, and heard Const. Craig Hubley over the radio a few half hour later report he’d shot the gunman at an Enfield fuel station.

“I do know Heidi very effectively and … I didn’t anticipate to see her that day. So I used to be, struggling,” Bernard later stated. “It was fairly … a shocker, and … knocked the wind out of my sails that day.”

Morrison hides behind EHS depot

Across the similar time, Morrison had arrived on the EHS base in Milford. He kicked on the door however did not get a right away reply so he grabbed his carbine and went to cover behind the constructing in case the gunman had adopted.

Paramedics had been warned of the lively shooter scenario and informed to not go outdoors if doable.

Morrison had already misplaced quite a lot of blood and felt his arms and arms rising weak, however was ready to make use of his car radio to broadcast the place he was and that he wanted assist.

“I went out into the woods and I simply type of crouched … and I used to be simply sitting there, with my arms type of hanging down and simply bleeding,” Morrison later informed police. “That is once I was simply type of spiraling.”

A couple of minutes after he arrived, RCMP dispatch phoned the 2 paramedics on the base and informed them Morrison was hiding outdoors. They noticed the cruiser outdoors and adopted a path of blood to the place Morrison was sitting within the grass.

Physique armour protected Mountie from gunshot

“I am the nice man, I am the nice man. Please assist me,” paramedic Daniel Storgato stated Morrison referred to as out.

The inquiry paperwork stated Morrison had a gunshot wound within the criminal of his left arm, whereas one other bullet had handed by way of his proper arm and fractured a bone. The paramedics additionally famous bruising to his chest from a suspected third gunshot however he was “protected by flak jacket.”

Whereas they have been treating Morrison, Storgato stated they heard phrase of Stevenson on his transportable radio and turned it off “so he did not have to listen to that.”

Brian Sauvé, president of the Nationwide Police Federation, which represents lively RCMP members under the rank of inspector, stated in a press release their hearts are with Stevenson’s mates, household and colleagues because the inquiry goes by way of the main points of her “courageous actions and the circumstances surrounding her homicide within the line of obligation.”

“The injuries of grief are nonetheless open for all these impacted,” Sauvé stated.

The group additionally acknowledged the “heroic actions” of Morrison who was shot whereas on obligation trying to cease the gunman, Sauvé stated, and so they honour his service.

The inquiry will take a break from public hearings on Tuesday, and return on Wednesday when paperwork concerning the dying of the ultimate sufferer, Gina Goulet, and the occasions on the Enfield fuel station shall be offered.