‘It’s just creepy’: Video showing possible glimpse of Nova Scotia killer riles already on-edge community

It could be one of the last glimpses of a killer's rampage.

And for that reason, the otherwise calm scene is chilling.

Residents in Truro, N.S., have been circulating video footage that captures what some believe is Gabriel Wortman, shortly before he was gunned down by police.

In the footage from a nearby business's camera, a man pulls an apparent RCMP cruiser off the road, parks it and steps out, wearing what looks like a police uniform.

According to the video time-stamp, the driver pulled up at 10:54 a.m. Sunday, nonchalantly removed a dark coat and put on what looks like a bright yellow safety vest.

The killer's exact route is not known, and it's impossible to confirm from the video alone, whether it's Wortman. But for a community already on edge, even the possibility has been a grim reminder of what happened so close by.

Kristin Sylliboy says she has been reliving that Sunday morning all week.

"He just seems so eerily calm," said Sylliboy, who believes the figure in the video is Wortman, because of the timing and the location.

"He had been up all night, like he hadn't ... he was just changing his vest or something. It's just creepy."

Her father runs a gas bar near where the footage was captured and she immediately recognized the area when a friend from the small tight-knit community sent it to her.

The timeline, at least, seems to add up. The scene outside a business in Truro, N.S., would have taken place less than an hour before Gabriel Wortman was shot dead a short distance away at a gas station in nearby Enfield. At 11 a.m., police have said, Wortman was last seen travelling southbound on Highway 102 toward Halifax from the Brookfield area. The Brookfield area is between Truro and Enfield.

Her small community has felt the shock waves from the shooting because "everybody knows everybody," Sylliboy said.

That morning, Sylliboy's father was ready to open up Keith's Gas Bar, but she called him, urging him to go home after she'd learned of the shooting.

She said she now wonders what would have happened had he not left the gas bar that morning. Sylliboy said her father left at about 10:40 a.m., minutes before the person would have pulled up, and as police were hunting for Wortman.

"My dad would have gone out to (say) like, 'Do you need anything? We're closed,'" she said.

"Like my dad is a very chatty person, so he wouldn't have hesitated to chat with him."

Sylliboy said she's sure it was the shooter in the video because it would make sense that he went from Truro to Shubenacadie using the "old highway," as she calls it.

Regardless, it's brought the tragedy even closer to home.

"(People) are thinking about the 'what ifs' and the 'what ifs and why'?" she said. "There's no answer. There's no 'why.'"

With files from The Canadian Press and Star Staff

Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based reporter covering provincial affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavitt