[Adrienne Arsenault] Saturday night
Nova Scotians were exactly where they were supposed to be safest right now.
Staying at home.
A shift at the RCMP was ending around 9:00 p.m.
with the most benign of tweets.
We get to relax for the evening and sleep in.
That's how it should have been.
10:32 p.m., the first public notice of trouble.
Another RCMP tweet about a firearms complaint in this tiny neighborhood of tiny Portapique.
Population of this time of year between a 100 and 150.
The gunman owned two properties there.
The warning for people was to stay inside and lock their doors.
No emergency alert issued.
How many missed that tweet were already asleep.
Here's some of the audio from the police scanner just after 11:00 p.m.
Witnesses reported at least three
structure fires in Portapique.
We know the Tucks were killed here together.
Emily, Aaron and Jolene Oliver.
So were Greg and Jamie Blair.
[Police] They're bringing the victims out from that intersection from the actual scene.
[Adrienne] Were there more? Yes.
But it's still early for details what weapons were used.
Even now police aren't sure.
We've been unable to fully examine the crime scenes because --
for instance, we have had five structure fires.
Most of those being residences.
And we believe there may be victims still within the remains of those homes.
There is still a lot of work to be done in regards to the various firearms that have been used.
When police arrived the gunman was gone.
But there were accounts he'd been
dressed as an RCMP officer.
Was driving this car with replica markings.
By 8:00 a.m. Sunday, morning terrifying calls from another community.
Wentworth.
42 kilometres to the northeast.
More gunfire, more explosions.
Tom Bagley, a volunteer firefighter had rushed to help and was killed.
Sean McLeod Alanna Jenkins, both corrections workers.
Their home was set on fire.
They both died here.
All told, police say there were five fires in these assaults.
Why is the question they are a long way from answering.
And there are details of what happened on the road overnight and into the morning
that are still being put together.
Cars stopped and set alight.
Some killed just on their way to work including Kristin Beaton.
This gunman moved a lot.
By 10 a.m. police tweeted he'd been spotted in the hidden hilltop campground in Glenholme.
Then the scene of two more homicide.
By 11:00 a.m. he changed vehicles.
Was now in a silver SUV.
Was he taking his murderous rage to Halifax?
11:40 a.m. after all night on the road.
Exhausted and traumatized police caught up with him at this gas station in Enfield.
His rampage over.
Not his horror.
Finding, naming the dead is still not done.
And mourning them?
How cruel that just went embraces are needed the most
they cannot be offered.
Love though, the entire country has that for Nova Scotia.
 
