By Canadian Press

Mass shooting inquiry: N.S. firefighters take aim at RCMP’s handling of their ordeal

Apr 11, 2022 | 11:36 AM

HALIFAX — The inquiry investigating the mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives heard testimony today from two firefighters who had sharp criticism for the way the Mounties handled their situation in April 2020.

The two were inside the firehall in Onslow, N.S., on the morning of April 19, 2020, when the RCMP were still searching for a suspect who had fatally shot 13 people the night before in Portapique, N.S., and would kill another nine people that day.

The firehall had been designated as a comfort centre for people evacuated from Portapique, but fire Chief Greg Muise and Deputy Chief Darrell Currie told the inquiry they were told very little about the killer or his whereabouts.

The inquiry has heard that Muise and Currie were in the building with evacuee Richard Ellison at 10:17 a.m. when they heard gunfire outside, and an emergency management co-ordinator ran inside yelling, “Shots fired! Shots fired! Get down!”

Muise and Currie said they assumed the killer had fired the shots, which prompted them to hide in a back room, where they built a barricade from wooden tables and metal chairs.

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Both men said it was another hour before they learned the bullets had been fired by two RCMP officers who mistook the emergency management co-ordinator for the killer.

“I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to die?'” Currie told the inquiry during a panel discussion that included Muise and Ellison. “Am I going to bleed out on the floor of this comfort centre? Are they going to shoot through the wall? It was pretty horrific.”

The two firefighters told the inquiry the close call was so terrifying that they both require medications and counselling to cope. 

As well, Muise and Currie said that had they known more about what was going on that day, they would have recommended against opening the firehall to evacuees, given the fact the killer’s whereabouts were unknown.

Muise said it would be another 11 months before senior RCMP staff showed up at the firehall to talk about what happened. 

“I don’t think the RCMP wanted anything to do with the firehall,” he told the inquiry. “They were shoving us under the table and hoping this would go away. I don’t think they realize what they put us through.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2022.

The Canadian Press