N.S. mass shooting inquiry to talk police paraphernalia, impersonators

The inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives continues Wednesday, with a roundtable on police paraphernalia and impersonators.

The Mass Casualty Commission’s public proceedings begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be live streamed here.

On Monday, the commission heard more details about how the gunman, who was disguised as a Mountie for much of his rampage, managed to evade the RCMP over the course of 13 hours on April 18 and 19, 2020.

Early in the RCMP’s investigation, several witnesses said they had spotted the killer driving a vehicle that looked like a fully marked RCMP cruiser. The inquiry has also heard that some of that key information did not get relayed to senior officers.

The descriptions given to 911 call-takers and police at the scene were accurate, but new evidence points to confusion and mistakes as the Mounties struggled to determine what vehicles the suspect owned and what he was actually driving.

The inquiry also heard Monday that many people knew about a replica patrol car owned by the gunman, but they didn’t inform police of his activities.

More to come.

— with files from The Canadian Press