By Canadian Press

N.S. mass killer shot himself in head as police were opening fire at gas station

Apr 13, 2022 | 10:48 AM

HALIFAX — A public inquiry heard evidence today that the Nova Scotia gunman who murdered 22 people in 2020 likely shot himself in the head within seconds of two officers firing on him.

Dr. Matthew Bowes, the province’s chief medical examiner, testified that the best explanation for a wound to the killer’s head is that he fired a bullet into his own temple, while also saying he might have survived that injury for “minutes” at the Enfield, N.S., scene.

Bowes said the gunshot wounds inflicted by the RCMP constables who opened fire just after 11:24 a.m. on April 19, 2020, created damage to the killer’s major organs that “would normally kill a person in seconds.”

As a result, Bowes’ written report of Oct. 6, 2020 says the death of Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist, occurred due to the police shooting him, rather than being a suicide. 

The forensic evidence released by the inquiry shows the pistol that the killer used to shoot himself belonged to Const. Heidi Stevenson, whom the perpetrator murdered after driving into her patrol car earlier that morning.

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Constables Ben MacLeod and Craig Hubley had told the inquiry in interviews that they saw the killer raising a silver-coloured pistol, and that prompted them to fire at him.

MacLeod said in his interview that, “despite being hit (the perpetrator) was able to get the pistol up to his temple,” but he had added he hadn’t been able to determine if the killer had actually shot himself.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 13, 2022.

The Canadian Press