Rural realities, Moncton shooting played into early police response in Portapique: expert

A policing expert says the stark reality of understaffed police forces in rural communities, combined with the “frenetic and unprecedented” first hours of the Portapique killings, were major contributing factors in the reactions of the first officers on the ground.

Michael Arntfield, a professor and criminologist at Western University, weighed in on police movements and response for the night of April 18 and the early hours of April 19, as outlined in a document released by the Mass Casualty Commission on Monday.

The document examines the April 2020 rampage by a man disguised as a Mountie that left 22 people dead, injured others and