Sixteen people, including a police officer, are dead in Nova Scotia, Canada, following the worst shooting rampage in Canadian history, police have said.
The suspect, identified as Gabriel Wortman, 51, is “deceased,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Sunday evening.
The police also said that the investigation involved victims at “multiple crime scenes” and that they could not yet give a precise number of fatalities.
Chris Leather, Chief Superintendent for the Nova Scotia RCMP, said it was “too early” to determine a motive. He said the victims appeared to have been targeted at random — some appeared not to have had a relationship with Wortman.
Leather said officers responding to multiple 911 calls Saturday night arrived at a Portapique residence to find a “chaotic” scene, with several casualties inside and outside of the home.
RCMP Constable Heidi Stevenson was killed in the overnight shootings, the RCMP reported. Another officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said Wortman was taken into custody late Sunday morning at a gas station in Enfield, some 57 miles south of Portapique. Later police said he had died but did not say how.
The suspect is believed to have operated alone and had carried out homicides throughout the province, police said.
“My heart goes out to everyone affected in what is a terrible situation,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said outside his Ontario home Sunday, adding: “I want to thank the police for their hard work, and people for cooperating with authorities.”
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