Mistaken for mass killer, man recalls shot ‘like a sonic boom’ as RCMP fired at him
HALIFAX — David Westlake is an unbelievably lucky man who still wonders what saved him when two Mounties mistook him for a killer and opened fire.
On the morning of April 19, 2020, the emergency management coordinator was at the firehall in Onslow, N.S., as the fire chief was welcoming people evacuated from nearby Portapique, N.S., where a gunman had killed 13 people the night before.
At the time, the killer was still at large and his rampage wasn’t over. He would kill a total of 22 people before being shot by police later that day.
At 10:17 a.m., as Westlake was chatting with an RCMP officer parked in front of the building, he watched in disbelief as a car screeched to a halt about 80 metres away and two men emerged with rifles. As both took aim at him, he made a dash for the firehall.