Testifying Monday in a public inquiry into the 2020 attack in the Scottish town of Portapique, which left 22 dead, three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers said the scene looked like a “war zone” and were unprepared for the number of victims. . At one point, amid the sound of gunfire and thick smoke falling from burning houses, they chased a man fleeing into the woods. But the man was not the perpetrator, Gabriel Vortman. Instead, police were mistakenly chasing Clinton Ellison, who had just discovered the body of his brother, Corey Ellison, lying dead on the street. The couple were in Portapique to visit their father and had gone out after hearing a shot. “We were preparing to shoot him,” said police officer Stuart Beselt. “If he ran, we would shoot him. I’m very grateful he did not shoot.” Fearing that he would be chased by the shooter, Ellison turned off his flashlight and hid in the woods for hours. The police soon retreated, fearing that they might become the target of the sniper. “It would be suicide,” Bezelt said. “It was self-preservation at that point.” Police learned only two days later that Ellison was not the gunman. Statements by police officers Beselt, Adam Merchant and Aaron Patton mark the first time key witnesses have testified before the county commission on mass casualties. Wortman’s 13-hour outburst on April 18-19, 2020, ended when he was shot by police. However, questions about the emergency response remain – mainly because the RCMP leadership failed to issue an emergency warning, warning residents of the gunman. The union representing the officers initially said the testimony would injure them again, but police agreed to answer questions from the committee after increasing public pressure to respond in the early hours of the morning. The three police officers said that they initially assumed that the perpetrator was driving a decommissioned vehicle, possibly with old stickers, after receiving reports that a “police car” was located in the area. Instead, they soon realized that it was in an almost perfect replica of their own vehicles, equipped with emergency lights. Bezelt said that if they had encountered the cruiser at night, they would have hesitated to open fire on the killer, not knowing if they were shooting a colleague. “They would have shot us,” Bezelt said. “There is no doubt that he would have taken our leap.” Patton said one of the most difficult decisions that night was to leave four children, whose parents had been killed, in a basement as they searched for the perpetrator. The police told them to lock the doors and hide until the police returned. “That was the hardest decision we made that night,” he said. “We were constantly worried after we left the house that something would happen to these children.” The commission will continue on Wednesday, with a timeline of the gunman’s actions in early April 19, as well as a testimony from a political witness.
