Nova Scotia RCMP officers shot at rural fire hall during search for killer

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s police watchdog is investigating why two RCMP officers started shooting at a fire hall while a killer disguised as a Mountie was on the loose.

Pat Curran, interim director of the Serious Incident Response Team, says the officers fired their weapons around 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Onslow-Belmont Fire Hall, near Truro.

Curran says it’s unclear why the officers opened fire, because the suspect was believed to be elsewhere.

The fire hall is about a half-hour drive from the tiny village of Portapique, where the assailant began shooting people and burning homes around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The Onslow Belmont Fire Brigade wrote on Facebook that the hall was being used as refuge for evacuees from around Portapique Beach Road when the building was pelted by bullets.

The Facebook post, which has since been taken down, says the gunfire caused considerable damage to the fire hall but no one was injured.

The brigade, which declined a request for comment, wrote Wednesday that the deleted post was meant to clarify Sunday’s events and not fuel “conspiracy theories” about the shooter.

The Canadian Press