Bryan Green and Kirsten Baglee, who oversaw the Communications Operations Center (OCC) in Bible Hill at the time of the massacre, spoke before the Mass Loss Committee, which led an investigation into the tragedy Monday. Green said there were 50 full-time pilots at the time of the April 18-19, 2020 killings, and only 24 now. People on long-term sick leave still hold some positions, Green said, but may or may not return. “It was bigger than any of us could have imagined,” Baglee said. “We lost great pilots, great employees, great people, I would not think we would lose,” Green added. Green said the center was still feeling the effects of the wave, as it only lost some staff last April, who kept “as long as they could”. Bryan Green and Kirsten Baglee, both in front of the camera, acting commanders at the RCMP Business Communications Center, testify Monday. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press) The center is trying to man “but it’s difficult to keep up, so we’re having a hard time,” Green said. The investigation found that the OCC is where 911 answering machines and processors for RCMP work and where the RCMP risk manager is located. The center was at Bible Hill at the time of the shooting, but moved to the RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth last year. Green and Baglee described what they experienced when they arrived at work on the morning of April 19, unaware of how a gunman attacked his partner, killed several neighbors in Portapique while disguised as a police officer and set fire to homes before leaving. community last night. The OCC overnight supervisor and the risk manager informed him of what had happened and the ongoing search for the gunman around 6:30 a.m., Green said, and recalled wondering, “How is this true?” Baglee offered to help on the office side, but because of the first precautions for COVID-19, she said the staff were being separated and that there was only room for the seven employees who were working that morning. He added that there were five senders on the other side of a wall and often ran back and forth to deliver messages that day. Although for the first few hours Green believed the incident was over and that they would eventually find the gunman in Portapique, he followed their policies for an active sniper and helped inform the upcoming morning crew. But then he said things escalated shortly after 9:30 p.m. when the news came of a new shooting victim in Wentworth. The Nova Scotia RCMP business communications center pictured in this archive receives 911 calls. In April 2020, shippers worked in Truro, NS (Nova Scotia RCMP). Over the next two hours, the gunman killed several times, including strangers and people he knew, as he was traveling in the countryside with his fake police cruiser and stolen vehicles. Operators were so busy focusing on incoming calls with vital information – Green said at one point that 80 calls were processed in half an hour – that he and Baglee came to call other police or emergency health services (EHS). ) and coordinated air support. He added that the answering machines were so busy that sometimes they had to hang up the phone with others if the caller did not have new and pressing information. “Someone described it as opening a fire hydrant as soon as it spilled out. The mere fact that they held any of the information directly was a miracle. I feel like we kept 99.9 percent straight and made sure it reached people who needed it,” he said. Green. As police were on the streets chasing the gunman, both Green and Baglee said they did the same thing at the OCC and were trying to find a motif that could indicate where they were headed next.
Information that comes with each scene
One of the hardest things was knowing that the only way to get information about the gunman was because “something horrible” had happened, Green said, and the police were always about 30 seconds behind him. At one point, Baglee said that the director of risk, Staff Sgt. Bruce Briers asked her to call the Troot police and tell them to lock up their city so that they would be prepared in case the gunman came their way. The investigation heard the call from Baglee who came to the Truro force at 10:37 a.m., when the gunman had already crossed the core of the city center. Truro Police Insp. Darin Smith said in an interview with the commission that he did not have enough information about the roadblocks, including where the gunman might have come from, and felt that the direction was a “panic statement” given to the sender without any real prediction. But Baglee said she had given Truro officers all the information she knew, and it was not her job to instruct any police service on what to do next. “If you have a lockdown protocol in place, then I think it’s time to get started,” Baglee said. Shortly after this call to Truro, it became clear that the gunman was in Shubenacadie as the RCMP Const. Chad Morrison called that he had been shot by the gunman at 10:48 a.m. Within a few minutes Const. Heidi Stevenson turned onto a nearby highway ramp and collided with a fake gunman in the front, eventually being shot and killed in a skirmish. “When Heidi was killed … I just felt the air leave the room for about half a second, and then we went on as if it didn’t happen. We had to do it,” Green said. Both Green and Baglee said not being able to react emotionally and deal with anything was one of the worst aspects of working at the OCC that day, including hearing Morrison ask for help as he hid behind an EHS warehouse that he was bleeding badly. “We want to protect our members. This is our job, this is to … take care of them, to make sure they get home – and we could not,” Bagley said, her voice cracking as she wept. “It’s our worst day, our worst nightmare ever.” Kirsten Baglee, acting commander of the RCMP operations communications center, testified at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry on Monday. He testified that due to the distancing requirements of COVID-19, he spent April 19 running back and forth delivering messages to the center staff. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press) The investigation heard how key information that was broadcast on police radios and called to the OCC from the first hours of the Portapique response was either not heard or passed on to commanders. However, some of this disconnection may be related to officers misusing their radios or not getting the attention of the facilitator, as other RCMP experts and members recently said in the survey. Green said Monday that it is important for the public to realize that the staff did their best on both days with the setting and technology they had at the time, and it is very easy to miss details when stress is high and they happen so many. The people who worked in the April 19 shift took the next eight days off, while the shift from April 18 had five days off, supervisors said. While Green said he felt that peer support and liaison with psychologists was enough for him, as so many people quit their jobs or are still ill, he might need more help. “From Moncton, we were told people were fired for a month … and that was not necessarily a good idea, but I still do not know if five or eight days was enough,” Green said. “I feel like I had enough support, but if you asked someone else, I do not know what he would answer – but whatever he answers is the right answer.” Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Gulett, Down Gulensen, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulencin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC) After the mass shooting, both supervisors said dozens of changes had been made to the OCC, including a new facility where both voicemails and senders are in a large open space and risk managers are on a raised platform in the middle so they can see and hear everything. Crisis policies and emergency alerts have also changed, and Green said they now have technology and resources he would not have known he would have wanted during the mass shootings. During a recent major incident, Green said he felt the situation was much smoother and the response “was more accurate.” Both supervisors said that criticism from the Nova Scotians and the media was difficult for them and their staff, so they both wanted to explain their own side of what happened those two days. “I did not want to be transferred again. I wanted the OCC to be represented as people, as people,” Baglee said. “We did our best that day. We overcame all obstacles.” The investigation will continue on Tuesday, when other services involved in the response and local politicians are expected to participate in more discussions.
