David Westlake is an unbelievably lucky man who still wonders what saved him when two Mounties mistook him for a killer and opened fire.
On the morning of April 19, 2020, the emergency management coordinator was at the firehall in Onslow, N.S., as the fire chief was welcoming people evacuated from nearby Portapique, N.S., where a gunman had killed 13 people the night before.
The two shooters were RCMP officers who mistakenly assumed Westlake was the killer, mainly because he was wearing a yellow-and-orange reflective vest that matched the police description of what the suspect was wearing. As for Westlake, he said he still couldn't believe he escaped with his life, though the close call had not hurt his sense of humour.
The Serious Incident Response Team, Nova Scotia's police watchdog agency, released a report in March 2021 that cleared both officers of any wrongdoing. It concluded the officers had reasonable grounds to believe they had the killer in their sights, and that they discharged their weapons "to prevent further deaths or serious injuries." The independent agency also drew attention to the jammed radios.
As well, eight people living near the firehall told investigators about what they saw that day, and none of them reported hearing anyone say, "Show your hands!"
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