Gunman killed 16 people in rampage in N.S.;
deadliest such attack in Canada
I spent two years in my mid-teens living in Bible Hill and going to school just a few miles from Portapique.
It's such a quiet, peaceful place along the north shore of Minas Basin; or, at least, it was.
Andrea Jerrett
CTV Contact
HALIFAX -- Police say at least 16 people, including an RCMP officer, have been killed in a mass shooting incident in Nova Scotia, making it the worst mass shooting in Canadian history.
The suspect is also dead following the incident.
RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki confirmed the number to CTV News Sunday evening. “Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia and it will remain etched in the minds of many for years to come,” said commanding RCMP officer Lee Bergman.
“What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one.”
Police confirmed that Const. Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Nova Scotia RCMP, died Sunday morning while responding to the active shooter incident.
"Heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served," said Bergman. "Two children have lost their mother and a husband has lost his wife. Parents have lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague."
A male RCMP officer was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. His identity has not been released. "He and his family will be supported and we will be alongside him as he begins his road to recovery," said Bergman.
Several people found dead at Portapique home
Chief Supt. Chris Leather said police first responded to a firearms complaint at a residence in Portapique, N.S. late Saturday evening after receiving several 911 calls. When officers arrived, Leather said they found “several casualties” inside and outside of the home.
“This was a very quickly evolving situation and a chaotic scene,” said Leather, the criminal operations officer for Nova Scotia RCMP.
Officers secured the area in Portapique and started searching for the suspect, but they were unable to locate him. Leather said the search for the suspect led to several sites in the area, including structures that were on fire.
“The search continued overnight and into the morning,” said Leather. “This morning we actively sought out the suspect through muliple communities throughout Nova Scotia.”
Police provided updates on Twitter overnight and into Sunday morning as they tracked the suspect across the province. Police confirmed that they were responding to an “active shooter situation,” and asked residents to remain in their homes with their doors locked.
Investigators first released the suspect’s identity before 9 a.m. Sunday. They said 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman was considered armed and dangerous and warned that he should not be approached.
Suspect travelled in vehicle resembling RCMP cruiser
Police said that, at one point, the suspect was driving what appeared to be an RCMP vehicle and wearing an RCMP uniform -- though he was not an RCMP officer.
Leather said the fact that Wortman had an RCMP uniform and a vehicle resembling a police cruiser indicates that the incident may have been planned. “That’s an important element of the investigation,” said Leather. “The fact that this individual had a police car and a uniform at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act.”
They later said he was driving a silver Chevrolet Tracker.
Police continued to track Wortman across the province, warning the public about sightings in Glenholme, Debert, Brookfield and Milford.
Victims were ‘scattered across the province’
Leather said the investigation involves “multiple crime scenes” and that there are victims “scattered across the province. There are several locations across the province where persons have been killed,” said Leather.
He said one person is believed to be responsible for the killings. “He alone moved across the northern part of the province and committed, it would appear, several homicides,” said Leather.
He didn’t specify where the crime scenes are located, saying the investigation is in the early stages. He also said it’s possible police could learn about additional crime scenes and victims in the coming days.
“Some of these crime scenes we’ve not even begun to process … it is an ongoing investigation that could reveal additional details in the coming days,” said Leather. “The investigation continues into areas that we’ve not yet explored across the province.”
In Shubenacadie, N.S., there were several burned-out vehicles, which appeared to be police cruisers, along the highway. Witnesses also reported hearing between seven and 10 gunshots.
“I hear the shots and I look out and … there’s a guy running back and forth up beside the, what looks to be a police vehicle,” recalled one witness at the scene. “Then after a short bit I saw fire.”
Leather confirmed that Wortman did exchange gunfire with police at one point during the chase, but wouldn’t say where.
Suspect shot and killed in Enfield
Officers eventually tracked Wortman to the Irving gas station and Big Stop restaurant in Enfield, N.S., where he was shot and killed late Sunday morning.
Leather wouldn’t confirm that Wortman was shot by police, but he did say “officers were involved in terminating the threat.” He also confirmed that Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team -- which investigates serious incidents involving police -- is investigating the man’s death.
‘Oh my God, lock the doors, he’s here!'
A truck driver from Ontario told CTV News he had stopped at the Irving for a shower and breakfast when he heard an employee shouting.
“She goes, ‘Oh my God, lock the doors, he’s here! And I peek out of the window and I saw some RCMP vehicles and there was four or five uniforms with guns,” said Tom Nurani.
Witnesses told CTV News they saw RCMP vehicles on scene, heard multiple gunshots, and saw a body on the ground.
“All I could hear was gunshots and my wife, I thought I was going to call 911, because she was going into panic, it scared her so bad,” said Glen Hines, who was driving by the Irving when he saw the Emergency Response Team arrive.
“There was multiple, like probably between five or 10 (gunshots). It was steady,” recalled Deon Wells, who lives nearby.
The RCMP had blocked off Highway 102 at Exit 5A and there was a large police presence at the Big Stop all day Sunday. The area surrounding the restaurant and gas station was cordoned off with police tape.
UPDATE: The terrorist was responsible for 22 known murders over 16 crime scenes. It ended when the suspect pulled into a gas station in a stolen car, whose owner he murdered, and there happened to be an RCMP K9 officer in an unmarked vehicle there also filling up. The officer and the suspect recognized each other about the same time and as the terrorist went for his gun the officer shot him.
There were mistakes made by police, unfortunately, by not raising a general alarm, that might well have cost lives. However, Canadian police are not trained for such insane acts of violence. The fact that there were so many crime scenes involving shootings, fires, and the terrorist was driving an RCMP car and wearing an RCMP uniform, is unprecedented in Canada and possibly, the world. No-one trains for such insanity.
UPDATE: The terrorist was responsible for 22 known murders over 16 crime scenes. It ended when the suspect pulled into a gas station in a stolen car, whose owner he murdered, and there happened to be an RCMP K9 officer in an unmarked vehicle there also filling up. The officer and the suspect recognized each other about the same time and as the terrorist went for his gun the officer shot him.
There were mistakes made by police, unfortunately, by not raising a general alarm, that might well have cost lives. However, Canadian police are not trained for such insane acts of violence. The fact that there were so many crime scenes involving shootings, fires, and the terrorist was driving an RCMP car and wearing an RCMP uniform, is unprecedented in Canada and possibly, the world. No-one trains for such insanity.
Gunman opens fire at Manchester funeral before being stabbed, as hundreds defy Covid-19 lockdown
Armed police were scrambled after a gunman opened fire at a funeral in Manchester, England, attended by hundreds of mourners despite Covid-19 social distancing orders. The attacker was reportedly stabbed by some of the crowd.
The shocking incident took place at Gorton Cemetery on Thursday, where family and friends were paying their last respects to 38 year-old Clive Pinnock, killed in a recent driving collision. The funeral was interrupted by a man firing shots, with witnesses saying he was then slashed with a knife, resulting in severe face lacerations, according to the Manchester Evening News.
Eyewitness footage of the funeral shared on social media showed a large group of mourners gathered in the cemetery, purportedly taken just before the gunman began peppering shots at the crowd.
Armed police were called to the scene, and swooped in to disarm the gunman - and protect him in turn from his attackers. There were no reports of any injuries to the other attendees.
Local reports say it's understood that three shots were fired, with the gunman taken to hospital for treatment.
Greater Manchester Police later released a statement on the incident saying: "Shortly before 7pm on Thursday, police attended Gorton Cemetery on Woodland Avenue, Gorton, following a report of a firearms discharge. A man aged 34 was found to have suffered knife wounds and was taken to hospital.”
Officers are continuing to investigate the incident, but no arrests have been confirmed by the force.
No motive for the shooting has been suggested. Was he just trying to disperse the crowd?
2nd Iraqi man goes on trial in Germany
accused of genocide in Iraq
By Clyde Hughes
Yazidi ethnic mourners cry in front of pictures of victims, during the fifth anniversary of the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic
State in Iraq on Aug. 3, 2019. The trial of one Iraqi man on charges connected with genocide started Friday in Germany.
Photo by Gailan Haji/EPA-EFE
State in Iraq on Aug. 3, 2019. The trial of one Iraqi man on charges connected with genocide started Friday in Germany.
Photo by Gailan Haji/EPA-EFE
The man, identified as Taha al-Jumailly, has been charged in a Frankfurt court for taking part in a genocide against the Yazidi people in northern Iraq.
It is the second such case this week being tried in Germany connected with crimes of humanity charges where the incident happened somewhere else in the world. On Thursday, another German court heard the trial of a former Syrian military officer and his subordinate accused of war crimes against anti-government forces in 2011 and 2012.
Al-Jumailly is accused of chaining a 5-year-old girl and her mother in the sun as temperatures soared to 122 degrees. The child died and the mother sustain serious burns.
Al-Jumailly's wife, Jennifer Wenisch, of Germany, has been on trial at a court in Munich since April 2019 for the death of the child. Prosecutors said the girl died of thirst in Fallujah in 2015.
Is that what she left Germany for and went to Iraq? Is that the better world she was fighting for? How pathetic!
Authorities said al-Jumailly's treatment of the woman and the girl was unrelenting after the couple purchased the two as slaves.
"They were not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied," Frankfurt chief prosecutor Anna Zadeck said in court."He forced them to wear a full veil and did not accept the child's name because it was the name of the infidel. Both were regularly beaten. The woman has suffered pain in her shoulder ever since. The child once had to stay in bed for four days after being beaten."
The Islamic State kidnapped the woman and her child in 2014 after the militant group raided the Sinjar region of Iraq, and they were sold numerous times after that on the regime's slave market.
April 23 (UPI) -- A former Syrian military officer and a subordinate stood trial for war crimes in Germany on Thursday.
Former Col. Anwar Raslan is accused of complicity in fostering torture and inhumane conditions that resulted in the deaths of dozens of anti-government activists in 2011 and 2012. Prosecutors said at least 4,000 were tortured.
Subordinate Eyad al-Gharib is charged with aiding and abetting in crimes against humanity.
Their trial began Thursday in the High Regional Court in Koblenz. The pair were living in Germany as refugees when they were arrested a year ago.
Although the purported crimes occurred outside of Germany, prosecutors are trying them there under a principle known as "universal jurisdiction."
"It is a good first step, an important step, but it is not going to be sufficient to fulfill the demands for justice of the Syrian people," said Mohammed Al Abdallah, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Syrian Justice and Accountability Center.
Raslan defected in 2012, less than a year into Syrian's civil war and joined forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's regime two years later. Some legal experts say the trial could discourage other Syrian troops and al-Assad supporters from doing the same, and keep them from providing information that could lead to future war crimes trials.
The trial is expected to last as long as three years.
"The overriding message to all members of the regime in Syria and all over the world is that you can't be safe," said Stefanie Bock, director of the International Research and Documentation Center for War CrimesTrials at Germany's University of Marburg.
At least 13 dead in Taliban attack on Afghan outpost
By Clyde Hughes
An Afghan police officer stands guard in Kabul, Afghanistan. File Photo by Jawad Jalali/EPA-EFE
April 24 (UPI) -- Afghan authorities said Friday more than a dozen pro-government militia members were killed during a Taliban attack on an outpost in Badghis province.
Badghis police security officer Shir Aqa Alokozai said the militant group assaulted Public Uprising forces and took control of the outpost near Qala-e-Naw, located in northwest Afghanistan about 70 miles northeast of Herat and 350 miles west of Kabul.
At least 13 members of the militia died in the attack and 10 are reported missing.
Public Uprising forces, with support from Afghan government security agencies, help provide additional security and protection for remote villages and districts around Afghanistan.
The Badghis province has been one of the main regions for fighting between government forces and the Taliban, which has increased attacks over the past week with incursions in 13 provinces that killed at least 100 security forces.
Afghan Parliament on Wednesday called on the Taliban to observe a cease-fire during the holy month of Ramadan, which started Thursday.
Attacks by the insurgent group have disrupted a peace deal signed in February between U.S. and Taliban negotiators, which called for further intra-Afghan talks between group leaders and government in Kabul.
Badghis Prov, AFG
Two IS supporters jailed for sending money to fighters in Iraq
JACOB JARVIS The Evening Standard
Two supporters of the so-called Islamic State group have been handed substantial jail sentences after sending money to help fighters in Iraq.
Ayub Nurhussein, 29, and Said Mohammed, 30, admitted funding terrorism by transferring £2,700 in three installments.
The money was sent via Denmark between April and July last year.
Chicken shop delivery worker Nurhussein, of Urlwin Road, south-west London, also pleaded guilty to four charges of having terrorist bomb-making manuals as well as three of sharing grisly IS propaganda by WhatsApp to his landlord.
He was handed an extended sentence of 13 years – nine and a half years in prison with a further three and a half-years on extended licence – for possessing the terror documents.
He was also jailed for seven years and three months for terror funding and four years and six months for the dissemination charges. All the sentences will run concurrently.
Mohammed, from Longsight, Manchester, whose contact in Iraq was said to be connected with the IS hierarchy, was jailed for five years and three months.
The Old Bailey heard that both defendants were Eritreans who had sought asylum in Britain.
Prosecutor Alistair Richardson said the defendants became “deeply radical” and had supported IS in whatever ways they could.
He said: “They wished to travel to Islamic State territory to join them. From the United Kingdom, the two of them, together, offered their support financially.
“They arranged for the provision of, and provided funds for, their Mujahideen, or fighter, brothers, who remained in Iraq fighting for that organisation.”
The pair hatched a plan to send money, after Mohammed’s contact in Iraq, named only as Wassim, urged him to help raise funds from “brothers from abroad” to support IS efforts. Mr Richardson said Wassim arranged for a go-between in Denmark to enable money to be sent to IS with “no problems”.
Sentencing on Friday, Judge Rebecca Poulet QC said: “Based on all the material I have seen, I conclude that both men have deeply held radicalised beliefs and that they were and possibly still are committed to the cause of the proscribed organisation Islamic State.
“It is quite clear that both men were wholehearted supporters of this terrorist cause and that both wished the funds to go to support the fighters of that organisation.”
So, why make their sentences concurrent. They should be held behind bars until they renounce Islam, as should all radicalized Muslims.
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