The last minutes of the Portapique gunman’s life.
Much of the last two days of testimony at the Mass Causality Commission have focused on just that.
On Thursday, the commission shared recordings from the two officers who ended the gunman’s 13-hour rampage.
“Pump six. Enfield Big Stop. Suspect is down, in his vehicle. Multiple shots away.”
That was from Constable Craig Hubley, just after he and Constable Ben MacLeod shot the killer 23 times.
Testimony from the pair came Friday.
Hubley says he recognised the gunman, from pictures he studied at the RCMP command post early in the day, just after he got out of his vehicle at the gas pumps.
“I remember trying to burn them into my mind’s eye.”
He says there was no doubt in his mind when he fired on the Portapique gunman.
Hubley says they believed it was either him or them, so shooting the gunman was their only choice.
“What I remember seeing is his arm come up, his right arm. There was a silver pistol in his hand, and it was at that point that I began firing.”
However, the gunman was able to fire his pistol.
Evidence suggests killer shot himself the moment he was killed by police
Dr. Matthew Bowes, the province’s Chief Medical Examiner, says the killer suffered a close-range gunshot wound to the right temple.
Dr. Bowes says he believes the wound was self-inflicted.
That matches the description of events from Constable Ben MacLeod who said, despite being shot, the perpetrator raised a pistol to his head.
However, MacLeod said he wasn’t sure, or couldn’t remember, if the gunman pulled the trigger.
ME refutes family claims police left woman to die
Dr. Bowes says accusations police left a woman to die after she was shot during the Portapique massacre are baseless.
The family of Heather O’Brien says her Fitbit recorded a heartbeat for hours after her death.
However, Dr. Bowes says, regardless of whatever the Fitbit recorded, her injuries were “rapidly and certainly lethal.”
“In my opinion there was nothing that could have been done, the injuries were too severe, and I’m sorry to have to put it like that.”
He says O’Brien’s brain was all but destroyed by a gunshot wound.
Bowes says a body can display signs of life well after it is effectively dead, and data from a Fitbit doesn’t refute the results of a forensic autopsy.
