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A gunman disguised as a law enforcement officer killed 16 people in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday, during a 12-hour rampage that authorities say is Canada’s deadliest-ever mass shooting.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police tracked the shooter in a small town in northern Canada for hours, finally killing him in a shootout on Sunday night, hours after he began his rampage, according to CNN.
Two of the shooting victims are police officers.
“The chaos began when police were first called to a property around 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Portapique, a seaside town about an hour and a half’s drive north of Halifax,” CNN says. “When police arrived at the scene the members located several casualties inside and outside of the home,” the head of the RCMP told the network.
“RCMP were led to several crime scenes miles apart beginning in Portapique and stretching about 60 miles to Enfield, where the suspect was found,” the RCMP added.
Authorities have no identified a motive for the shooter, who contained the murders largely to the town of Portapique. Although some of the victims are related to the shooter, authorities say, others appear to have no connection at all to the man, leaving officers mystified. It seems he began shooting in a subdivision close to his home but moved on to targeting victims “at random,” per police.
The suspect was dressed as a RCMP officer and, at one point, may have been driving a mock police vehicle though authorities say he did switch cars in the middle of the rampage, likely to throw off authorities searching for him across the 6o-mile range.
“This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history,” Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil told media at a press conference on Sunday. “I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed his sentiments and promised to “be with” the community of Portapique.
“To the Portapique community, we’re keeping all of you in our thoughts. And on behalf of all Canadians, I want you to know that we’re here for you – and we’ll be here for you in the days and weeks ahead,” the PM said on Twitter.
The Inquirer reports that this is Canada’s deadliest mass shooting, and its first in more than a decade.
“Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada,” the outlet said Sunday. “The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before this weekend’s rampage, that had been the country’s worst.”
Canada’s gun laws are particularly restrictive. It is “illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon in Canada,” according to the Inquirer, and anyone who purchases a firearm must endure an extensive training program, a “personal risk assessment,” and a criminal background check, and must provide “two references” and “spousal notification.”
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