'I don't feel they’re digging into it enough': Husband of N.S. shooting victim angry after day at inquiry

Thursday was the first time Nick Beaton came to the public proceedings held in Halifax by the Mass Casualty Commission, and he says he was only faced with disappointment.

That was the day the commission outlined its findings of fact so far regarding what led up to the killing of Beaton's pregnant wife, Kristen Beaton, by the gunman responsible for Nova Scotia’s April 2020 mass shooting.

"I don't feel they're digging into it enough, I really don't," says Beaton.

Beaton says too many details were left out in the inquiry’s presentation on the events, like what Kristen’s brother was told by police after he rushed to the crime scene in search his sister.

“The information he was told at the scene, is that a young female left with chest injuries,” says Beaton. “Kristen’s brother called me right then and said, 'Kristen might still be alive,' ... it gave us hope.”

Beaton says Kristen’s brother even went to the hospital to look for her.

The family’s hope vanished when RCMP notified them of Kristen's homicide eight hours after she was killed.

But during Thursday’s public presentation, senior counsel for the commission, Roger Burrill, stuck to his overview of the inquiry’s timeline of events on the morning of Sunday, April 19, 2020.

That presentation picked up where it left off from the previous day, detailing the killer’s movements after he killed his seventeenth victim, Lillian Campbell, on the side of Highway 4 while she was on her morning walk.

Information gathered by the commission shows how close RCMP officers came to the suspect in his replica police car that morning. In fact, one officer, Cpl. Rodney Peterson, passed the perpetrator on the highway going in the opposite direction, telling police dispatch, “The guy ah, was driving slow, smiled as he went by ...”

Peterson did not immediately turn around to pursue the suspect, who then disappeared from view.

The time was almost 9:48 a.m., and the perpetrator appeared on security camera footage at a residence in Glenholme, N.S., shortly after. That footage shows him approaching the door holding what looks like a long gun.

The couple inside frantically called 911 and reported he was banging on the door.

Surveillance footage from the property indicates the gunman only stayed a little over two minutes.

By the time RCMP officers on the ground -- and a DNR helicopter in the sky -- arrived at the location, less than 10 minutes later, the suspect was gone.

At that point, surveillance video shown by the commission indicates he was travelling on Plains Road in nearby Debert, N.S.

That’s where he encountered VON (The Victorian Order of Nurses) continuing care assistant Kristen Beaton, who was parked at a gravel area roadside.

According to her husband, it was normally seen as a safe place to pull over for a break in between client visits.

Beaton and his wife had been communicating back-and-forth in text messages and phone calls about the situation, which they knew from social media had unfolded in Portapique, N.S., the night before.

Beaton told his wife in a text, “If you see someone walking, don’t stop.” At 9:37 a.m., Beaton sent his wife a photo of the suspect sent out by police.

But while the RCMP knew internally to be on the lookout for the suspect in a mock police car, the force didn't alert the public to that fact until a tweet at 10:17 a.m.

“If we had known, she would have been home, there's no question. I believe that with every inch of my soul that she would have been home if she had of known,” says Beaton.

The last time Beaton spoke to his wife on the phone was at 9:41 a.m.

A photo of Kristen Beaton is displayed at a memorial in Debert, N.S. on Sunday, April 26, 2020. The VON care worker was shot and killed when she stopped along the road. A man went on a murder rampage in several Nova Scotia communities killing 22 people. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

A photo of Kristen Beaton is displayed at a memorial in Debert, N.S. on Sunday, April 26, 2020.  (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

Around 10 a.m., a witness driving on Plains Road reported seeing the suspect and his mock police cruiser pulled up next to a vehicle at the spot where Kristen had pulled over.

According to forensic reports, Beaton was shot through the driver’s side window of her vehicle.

At the same time, VON nurse Heather O'Brien, who was on a day off, was parked on the same road 320 metres ahead, talking on the phone with friend and colleague Leona Allen. Allen later told the commission O’Brien mentioned hearing gunshots and seeing a police officer.

Then Allen heard her friend scream. The call ended, and she couldn’t reach O’Brien again.

The commission says, according to forensic evidence, investigators determined the gunman also shot O’Brien through the driver’s side of her vehicle.

It took the commission several hours to present its information on what happened on Plains Road before it wrapped up for the day before noon Thursday.

Beaton remains dissatisfied with the commission’s work so far.

“I don't feel like it's really doing what we marched and fought for,” he said. “I think they’re just scanning what’s already out there.”

The Mass Casualty Commission’s public proceedings will resume the week of April 11.