In Canada, much has been criticized for how the police communicated during last weekend’s shooting in the province of Nova Scotia. Many people do not understand why the police warned the shooter via social media and not via the provincial emergency alarm system.
The hunt for the suspect lasted about thirteen hours. In that time frame, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman shot 22 people. During the worst shooting in Canadian history, police sent a series of tweets to approximately 90,000 followers warning that a shooter was active in the area.
Some relatives of the victims say that deploying the emergency warning system, which would have sent text, radio and television alerts, may have saved the lives of their loved ones.
“I don’t use Twitter and I don’t know anyone who uses it,” said a man whose wife was shot on Sunday while on her way to work in an interview with the Canadian TV channel. CTV News.
Another resident of the area tells Reuters that she had heard about the shooting on Saturday night, but not that the shooter was still active when she woke up on Sunday morning. “There was no warning, nothing, so I thought everything was fine.”
Police happy with Twitter messages
Police chief Chris Leather defended social media use on Wednesday. He said, among other things, that he was “very satisfied” with the reports, which were further disseminated with the help of the media. According to him, the content of the Twitter messages could not be clearer and better.
Leather also said the police were about to use the alarm system, but the gunner was shot by officers at the time. The police are still working on a reconstruction of the events.
Wortman opened fire on the night from Saturday to Sunday in the city of Portapique. He was dressed in a police uniform and had made his car look like a police car. He made victims in several places in Nova Scotia, including an agent. According to the police, the suspect knew some of his victims, but the others seem to have been chosen at random.
The suspect’s motive is still unclear.
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