Police officers Stuart Beselt, Adam Merchant and Aaron Patton testified together Monday in the investigation into the shooting that killed 22 people, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP officer. The form of the control panel had all three sitting side by side, as they discovered the first 90 minutes of the RCMP’s response on April 18, 2020. Now that they had almost two years to think about that chaotic night and its aftermath, police said in the investigation that they “tried for the best”. “It was chaos. We tried to treat things as they came,” Patton said. RCMP Const. Aaron Patton, one of the first officers on the scene in Portapique, NS, asks a question in the Mass Casualty Commission investigation into the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia on 18-19 April 2020 in Halifax on Monday 28 March 2022 ( Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)
All three members continue to work for RCMP. Beselt and Merchant are still in Nova Scotia, while Patton is based in Nunavut. The trio described how they drove between 160-200 km / h in separate vehicles outside the Truro to reach the stage at Portapique in about 20 minutes. At the time, they only knew that a shot had been fired at the small, rural community. Beselt acknowledged that they had information on arrival suggesting the suspect was driving something that “looked like a police car”, but said that could mean different things to different people. “We are open to anything at that point, but did we specifically think he had a model police car that was in every way just like a police car? No. It was a surprise to us,” he said. Roger Burrill, senior adviser to the Inquiry Committee leading the investigation, played 911 calls and radio communications between RCMP members before calling for response and insight. Bezelt told the investigation that just the next day the RCMP released a photo of the gunman’s car to the public, realizing it was actually a replica of the police car. “What you have to realize is that for him it is a target-rich environment, because he knows it’s the only fake. We had no idea what the level of this car was – what happened,” Beselt said. “The next day, they did it and it still had the jump in two members.” Const. Heidi Stevenson of the RCMP of Nova Scotia was shot and killed by a gunman on the morning of 19 April. Her colleague, Const. Chad Morrison was also shot but survived. Beselt told investigators that night they assumed an old decommissioned police car with “some of the old signs” was possible, but said they were open to anything. “We never imagined it was so detailed,” Beselt said. RCMP Const. Stuart Beselt, one of the first officers on the scene in Portapique, NS, asks a question in the Mass Casualty Commission investigation into the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia on 18-19 April 2020 in Halifax on Monday 28 March 2022 ( Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)
Patton said that if they had met the copy of the car that night, they would have made difficult decisions about how to proceed. “Obviously we would have seen it as a threat, but it would have been very difficult to take action on it, perhaps feeling that perhaps a colleague had done it before us,” he said. Bezelt said that if this happened, and they fell on the gunman, they would have been shot. He said police “turned their guns on every vehicle” they saw that night.

Leaving children alone “the most difficult decision”

Bezelt testified that he could not remember exactly what made them go to the Red House on Orchard Beach Drive, but he remembers being “surprised” when he found four children hiding there. The children of the victims Jamie and Greg Blair had gone there to be with Lisa McCully’s children and the police told the children to stay in the basement and not to answer the door. Based on their IARD training – the approach taken by all three Portapique officers – they said they had to leave the children alone and continue to look for the shooter. “It was the hardest decision we made that night,” Patton said. All three did not want to leave the children, but said they had to move on, as the IARD depends on finding and stopping an immediate threat. “It would be easy to stay there and protect the children. But if you think people are dying on the street and you could prevent it… this is the basic principle of IARD … you know, stop the threat,” Beselt said. “[It] it does not matter if you kill the whole subdivision and you kept the kids safe. He continued to do what he was going to do. “

Meeting with the victim’s brother

As soon as the police left the children, Beselt said he saw a light in the forest and assumed he was a suspect. In fact, it was Clinton Ellison. He was horrified when he found the body of his brother, Corey, and thought the police were armed. Beselt called that if there were other officers in the forest they would have to be identified because he was preparing to shoot. They lay on the ground, watching the light approaching to try to identify who was in the dark. “My line in the sand is that if it runs, I will shoot, because I want to stop this threat,” Beselt said. Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19. Top row from left: Gina Gulett, Down Gulencin, Joulen Oliver, Frank Gulencin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
But Clinton turned off his flashlight and fell into the woods, losing the officers. Bezelt decided that running blindly in the dark forest would be “suicide.” Instead, they continued on their way when they found Lisa McCully’s body. Although Beselt said he did not think he could have done anything different, the moment he encountered what he thought was a flashlight he ate it for the next two days. “The sadness of knowing that you could have prevented it the next day if you had taken the plan,” Bezelt said. “I was quite upset with that.” Only after an informal briefing on Monday with other police officers involved that night did Beselt hear key information that made him realize that they had confronted Clinton.

“Hey, this is crazy”

Patton described how they were not scared that night as they searched for the shooter. He said there was too much adrenaline. “I do not think it’s the feeling that we are the three bravest guys out there because I do not think that’s true. We have not had a chance to be scared,” he said. Bezelt described how they chased the sounds of explosions and gunfire. The trader said he was thinking in the back of his mind “this is crazy”. Patton said that only at the end of the night, when the fires were going down, were they able to reflect on the seriousness of the situation. “There was no real direction for where we were going, waiting for the next direction for where to go, and I think that was the first opportunity in three hours that we said, ‘Hey, this is crazy.’