TORONTO — Canadian police said Tuesday they believe there are at least 22 victims after a gunman wearing a police uniform shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across rural communities in Nova Scotia over the weekend.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they have recovered remains from some of the destroyed homes. Earlier, authorities had said at least 18 people were killed in the 12-hour attack.
Police said in an earlier news release that they believed there were 23 victims but Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Daniel Brien later clarified the death toll included 22 victims and the gunman.
Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was shot and later died on Sunday. Authorities did not provide further details or give a motive for the killings.
The dead include a 17-year-old as well as a police officer, a police news release said. All the other victims were adults and included both men and women. There were 16 different crime scenes in five different communities in northern and central Nova Scotia, it said.
“Some of the victims were known to Gabriel Wortman and were targeted while others were not known to him,” the police statement said.
Authorities also confirmed Wortman was wearing an authentic police uniform and one of the cars he used “was a very real look-alike RCMP vehicle.”
“This is an unprecedented incident that has resulted in incredible loss and heartbreak for countless families and loved ones. So many lives will be forever touched,” the police statement said.
As fears mounted that more victims would be found in burned out homes, a young man said earlier that his grandparents were missing and believed dead after their log cabin was set ablaze during the attack.
Justin Zahl said he finally heard from police after frantic calls for information and seeing images of his grandparent’s home in the rural town of Portapique burned to the ground, with their cars in the driveway.
It was not immediately clear, however, if the remains police said were found Tuesday included those of Zahl’s grandparents.
Police teams were spread out across 16 locations in central and northern Nova Scotia, including the neighborhood where the rampage began late Saturday on Portapique Beach Road, where the suspect lived.
Police have warned the death toll will almost certainly rise as investigators comb through homes destroyed by fire.
Meanwhile, questions emerged Tuesday about why a public emergency alert was not sent as the rampage ensued. Police provided Twitter updates, but no alert that would have automatically popped up on cellphones.
Zahl told The Associated Press he last heard from his grandmother early Saturday evening via iMessage on her iPad.
“They were angels,” he said, adding that the couple were like parents to him and his 19-year-old brother, Riley. “He was the smartest man I knew, and could hold a conversation with anyone.”
He said John Zahl, in his late 60s, and Elizabeth Joanne Thomas, in her late 50s, lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before retiring to their dream home in Nova Scotia in 2017 after falling in love with the place on a visit. Justin and his brother lived with them for a while but both young men no longer do and neither was at the home during the attack, he said.
Authorities said Wortman, 51, made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser allowing him to travel easily within a 30-mile (50-kilometer) area around Portapique, where the rampage began.
As the attacks unfolded, police warned residents in the neighborhood to lock their doors and stay in their basements. The town, like all of Canada, had been adhering to government advice to remain at home because of the coronavirus pandemic and most of the victims were inside homes when the attack began.
But no wider warning was issued.
Several bodies were later found inside and outside one house on Portapique Beach Road, authorities said. Bodies were also found at other locations in Nova Scotia and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly as he drove around.
Authorities said Wortman did not have a police record, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki said police were still studying the crime scenes to determine what weapons were used.
Meanwhile, many questioned why a public emergency alert was not sent province-wide — even though the system was recently used to advise people to maintain social distancing because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There should have been some provincial alert,” said David Matthews, who heard a gun shot while he was walking with his wife on Sunday. Shortly after they returned home, their phone started ringing with warnings from friends that there was an active shooter in the neighborhood, he said.
Cheryl Maloney, who lives near where one victim, 54-year-old Gina Goulet, was killed, said she was likely saved by her son, who messaged a warning Sunday morning: “Don’t leave your house. This guy is at the end of your road and he’s dressed like a cop.”
“I really could have used that provincial warning, as I walk here all the time and I’ve been in the yard all week,” she said.
