2020 Nova Scotia attacks

The attacks are the deadliest shooting Rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where 14 women were killed.

On May 1, in the wake of the attacks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following through on a 2019 campaign promise, announced an immediate ban on some 1,500 makes and models of "military-grade assault-style" weapons, including two of the five guns used in the attacks.

The ban included the Ruger Mini-14, which Wortman obtained illegally within Canada, while the other four guns he used included a stolen pistol from an RCMP officer who he killed and three guns obtained illegally from the US.

The attacks originated in the rural beachside community of Portapique, 130 km north of Halifax, when Wortman assaulted his partner at their cottage.

During the assault, he poured gasoline throughout the cottage and set the residence on fire.

Wortman then forced his partner to walk to their nearby warehouse and confined her in the back seat of his replica RCMP cruiser.

She was able to escape and then hid in the woods until early the next morning.

Wortman then set the warehouse on fire.

Beginning at 22:01, a number of Portapique residents called 9-1-1 to report gunshots and several fires.

Investigative reporting by CBC News's The Fifth Estate examining the timeline of the events found that the first call came from the wife of a victim.

The woman was then shot and killed as well while barricading a bedroom door and protecting her two sons.

Wortman then attempted to set the house on fire, but the two sons escaped from the home.

A third son of the victims said he believed Wortman targeted his father first during the attacks because he owned rifles and would have been able to stop him.

At about 22:05, Wortman reportedly returned to his burning house where he killed a woman living across the street who had mistaken him for an RCMP officer responding to the fire.

The woman's children took in the two sons of the first victims, and together they hid for several hours while on the phone with 9-1-1 waiting to be rescued.

At 22:10, two of Wortman's neighbours drove to his house to investigate the fire while calling 9-1-1.

Along the way, they passed by the house of a couple Wortman had shot and killed where they noticed what appeared to be a police car parked in front with its roof lights off.

After confirming Wortman's house was on fire, the two drove back and encountered the same police car fleeing the scene of another house fire.

As they pulled alongside the police car, Wortman fired at them with a handgun, hitting the driver in the shoulder.

The two fled in their vehicle.

When the first three RCMP officers arrived on the scene at 22:26, they slowly entered the neighbourhood on foot, eventually finding some of the victims.

Police said many had died while trying to escape the flames or to help other victims.

Some of the victims were not discovered until many hours later.

One officer reported by radio that they could not locate the shooter and that "it's very bad, what's going on down here".

The Fifth Estate reported that the first responding officers were "overwhelmed" and called for assistance in locating or engaging the shooter.

First responders also found the neighbours that Wortman shot at, who identified him by name, said he had gone towards the beach, and that there was another unmapped exit from the neighbourhood.

They also informed the officers that Wortman was in a replica police vehicle, which was also previously reported by several 9-1-1 calls.

At 23:32, the RCMP posted a tweet saying it was dealing with a "firearms complaint"; it asked residents of the Portapique area to stay inside with their doors locked, as officers set up a search perimeter of 2 km. Overnight, there was still confusion over whether Wortman had been apprehended and if he was the driver of the apparent police car.

At the time, the RCMP was unable to use a helicopter to assist in the manhunt because their only Atlantic-based helicopter was unavailable due to routine maintenance.

The RCMP later determined that Wortman had left Portapique at around 22:45, 19 minutes after police first responded, by driving through a dirt road along a blueberry field, which the officers did not block off.

After escaping, he spent the night parked behind a welding shop in the Debert area, about 26 km east of Portapique.

There, he left behind police equipment and gun-related items in a ditch on the property of a resident he knew.

At some point after, the RCMP's Emergency Response Team responded to the Portapique attacks.

Before then, residents reported seeing little to no law enforcement presence in the area, despite seeing fires and making 9-1-1 calls to report gunshots.

On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield.

For most of the thirteen-hour crime spree, Wortman was driving a replica RCMP cruiser and wearing an RCMP uniform.

On December 4, 2020, three people, including Wortman's partner, were charged with supplying him with ammunition later used in the attacks.

Police were criticized for not using Alert Ready to warn the public about the attacks, as well as not responding to reports of Wortman's behaviour and previous acts of violence.

An investigation into law enforcement's response to the Rampage, including the decision not to use Alert Ready, was launched.

A public inquiry into the law enforcement response was declared on July 28, 2020 following escalating criticism of the investigation's lack of transparency.