N.S. man stood guard with a shotgun after the mass shooter rang his doorbell
CBC
One of the RCMP officers racing to the scene of Lillian Campbell's Wentworth homicide in April 2020 came face to face with the gunman responsible for more than a dozen murders, but lost his trail when the shooter turned into a long driveway off the main road.
The gunman knocked on the door of Adam and Carole Fisher's house in Glenholme, N.S., but never passed in front of the window while Adam was watching with a gun, prepared to "blow his f—ing head off," according to documents released by the Mass Casualty Commission.
The gunman was only at the Fishers' property off Highway 4 for about two minutes before taking off again, as the noise of a helicopter helping police in the search grew louder.
Five minutes later, a group of RCMP officers and Emergency Response Team members pulled up near the Fishers' driveway and began planning to surround the house.
No one had seen the gunman leave.
The details surrounding the Fishers' close call and other events that transpired in Glenholme on the morning of April 19, hours after the shooting rampage began in Portapique, are included in a document released Thursday by the Mass Casualty Commission.
The commission is tasked with examining the events of April 18 and 19, when Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people, including a pregnant woman.
Investigators with the commission gathered details from 911 call logs, interviews and statements from civilian witnesses and RCMP officers on the ground.
Cpl. Rodney Peterson of Colchester RCMP reported to work at the Bible Hill detachment the morning of April 19, having heard only a few things from colleagues about what had happened in Portapique the night before.
Staff Sgt. Andy O'Brien met Peterson in the parking lot and told him he'd be handling calls coming in that day. As he was walking away, O'Brien said they were still looking "for a police car" and Peterson should put on hard body armour.
He made the same assumption as multiple RCMP officers who arrived in Portapique the night before. When told by neighbours and witnesses that the gunman was driving a police car, they assumed it was a decommissioned or an older model.
Peterson arrived on Highway 4 in Glenholme and spotted a marked RCMP cruiser coming toward him just before Plains Road, about 20 kilometres south of where Campbell was shot.
He reported the sighting instantly, and at 9:47 a.m. asked whether the gunman's car was fully marked "or is it an ex-police car?"
The ERT responded they were looking for a fully marked police car with a specific call sign.
