Questions emerge about RCMP's failure to send emergency alert on gunman's rampage

The RCMP inNova Scotia knew it had a murderous gunman on the loose Saturday night but failed to warn local residents about the threat to their safety through the provincial emergency alert system.

It's a decision that has friends and family of someof the victims wondering if their loved ones would be alive nowif they'd been warned about an armedkillerat large in Colchester County.

"I feel strongly about that. I do feel if we had received an alert,an amber alert, we've had COVID-19 alerts ... then many people might have been spared," said Heather Matthews, a longtime walking partner and neighbour of Lillian Campbell Hyslop.

Hyslop was killed Sunday morning in the Wentworth area,roughly eighthours after the shooter had killed people in Portapique, a community 40 kilometres to the south.

Matthews and her husband took a different path on their walk that morning, avoiding the roadway and a provincial park that had been closed because of theCOVID-19 pandemic. The two heard what sounded like a gunshot a few hundredmetres away but assumed it was a hunter and kept walking.

They said theydidn't even realize there was a gunman on the loose until they got home and a friend called to warn them about the activity overnight in Portapique.

RCMPalerts went out on Twitter

Matthews said she wishesher friend Hyslop, a frequent walker along the roads inWentworth Valley,had known about the shooter before she went for her usual stroll that morning.

WATCH | 'I would not have let my wife leave':Lack of emergency alert during N.S. shooting questioned:

I would not have let my wife leave': Lack of emergency alert during N.S. shooting questioned

4 years ago

Duration 2:02

Nick Beaton, whose wife Kristen was killed in the Nova Scotia shooting rampage, is questioning why an emergency alert wasnt sent during the attack. He believes it would have saved lives, including his wifes.

The police force sent a tweet to its thousands of followers late Saturday, warning the people of Portapique to lock their doors as they investigated a "firearms complaint."

Early Sunday morning, the force sent another tweet with the name and a photo of the shooter and a warning to people in the county that he was "armed and dangerous."

"I understand that RCMP put it out on Twitter. But not everybody is on Twitter,not everybody has Facebook,not everybody has the internet, but we all have TVs, radio and a phone. There should have been some other way of notifying these people that they should have been inside safe," Matthews toldCBC News.

Central and northern Nova Scotia is a largelyrural area where internet service is spotty and Twitter use is not widespread.

Cumberland-Colchester MP Lenore Zann, who represents the area, said Monday many of her constituents "prefer Facebook" to Twitter.

Debi Atkinsonis another friend of Hyslop's from Wentworth. She told CBC Radio's As It HappensTuesday that most residents of their village feel like they were left in the dark by police.

WATCH |Heather Matthews says an emergency alert sent to phones may have saved her friend's life:

Friend of Lillian Hyslop reflects on the tragic events that took her life

4 years ago

Duration 9:28

Heather Matthews lost her friend Lillian Hyslop in the murderous rampage in Nova Scotia; she feels a stronger alert system could have saved lives.

"Everybody's feelings about the whole thing was,why wasn't there an amber alert? We went into this blind," she said. "Out of all our friends, I don't know anybody that follows Twitter, that has a Twitter account.

"You know, even after the fact, by the time we actually found out that there was a possibility of this man being in our neighbourhood, he had already passed through our neighbourhood. He was already in Masstown on his way to Debert. So we were way behind."

Mounties never asked for emergency alert: province

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil confirmed Tuesday his government never received a request from the Mounties to send a message to the wider community through Alert Ready, Canada's emergency alertsystem, which sends messages to Canadians through television, radio and LTE-connected cell phones.

McNeil said the province's Emergency Management Office had been activated and technicians were brought in Saturday to send such an alert but the request never came from the Mounties.

Under the terms of the Alert Ready system,federal, provincialand territorial governments are "responsible for issuing emergency alerts."

"We are the lead agency and the RCMP has to ask for that alert to go out because, quite frankly, we need that information from them what is it that they want in that alert to notify citizens?"McNeil said.

"We had staff on hand in the morning to be able to do that but it was not requested.The reason why the RCMP didn't ask is a question for them, not for us."

At a press conference Monday, the RCMP could not explain why an emergency alert wasn't sent to warn local residents about an active shooter.

"It's a good question, and I don't have an answer for you at this moment," RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather said.

"We have relied on (Twitter) because of the instantaneous manner that we can communicate. We have thousands of followers in Nova Scotia and felt that it was a superior way to communicate this ongoing threat," he said.

Asked if she knew why Mounties didn't use the alertsystem, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said "there's always going to be a better way of doing things."

"I do say in any incident such as this, we always have to look back at what they did. Nobody can lose their life in vain," she said.

Not clear what message should be

The RCMP did not immediately respond to a media request Tuesday asking if the force had anything further to say aboutwhy the alert system wasn't used. The force directed requests for comment to the provincial RCMP.

Jack Lindsay is an associate professor indisaster and emergency studies atBrandonUniversity in Manitoba.He said the police may have held off sending a message through Alert Readybecause of how fluid the events were that night.

WATCH | RCMPwouldn't say how the gunman acquired an officialRCMP uniform:

'Nobody can lose their life in vain': Commissioner Lucki on N.S mass killing probe

4 years ago

Duration 3:12

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki speaks to reporters about the ongoing investigation into the mass killing in Nova Scotia. She's asked about the involvement of the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) and how the gunman acquired what appeared to be an RCMP uniform and vehicle.

During a natural disaster, for example, it's easier for authorities to giveclear instructions to recipients about what to do next, he said.

"When a tornado warning is issued, we expect people to take shelter, and this may mean opening public buildings for that purpose,"Lindsay said. "It's easier to plan those kinds of warning-action-support scenarios for natural and technological emergencies.

"Crimes, terrorism and other human-driven events are more difficult when you don't know what the person might do next. Perhaps there wasn't a clear message the authorities felt would help, given how dynamic the situation was."