By Canadian Press

Mountie recalls killer looked at him as he aimed pistol to end N.S. rampage

Apr 14, 2022 | 10:51 AM

HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia Mountie has testified that a single glance from the bloodied driver of a Mazda hatchback was the final confirmation that he had a mass killer lined up in his pistol sights.

Const. Craig Hubley, an RCMP dog handler, joined Const. Ben MacLeod, an emergency response officer, today to tell a public inquiry how they ended the 13-hour rampage by a gunman who killed 22 people on April 18-19, 2020.

Hubley testified that when he joined the hunt for the killer on the morning of April 19, he carefully studied the photographs of the wanted denturist Gabriel Wortman at a command post and attempted to “burn them into my mind’s eye.”

Over three hours later, when he and MacLeod pulled into an Enfield, N.S., gas station at 11:24 a.m. to refuel, Hubley said he noticed a man wearing a white T-shirt in a grey Mazda at a pump across from his police SUV.

He told the inquiry in the “quarter second” after he emerged from his truck, his suspicions were particularly aroused by the man seeming to be unaware that blood was running from a bump on his head.

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Hubley told the inquiry he was “100 per cent” sure it was the killer, and called to MacLeod, “Benny, it’s him,” as he lined the killer up in the sights of his pistol.

He recalled at that moment, the killer, “looked at me,” and it “confirmed” the person in the car matched the pictures he’d seen that morning.

Both Hubley and MacLeod testified they started shooting when they saw Wortman raise a silver-grey gun with his right hand.

The inquiry heard that in the seconds that followed, Hubley fired 12 bullets through the passenger window, while MacLeod, who came out of the SUV at roughly the same time, fired 11 rounds with his carbine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press