Was there a pulse? RCMP officers give conflicting evidence on woman’s death in NS attack

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A public inquiry into Nova Scotia’s 2020 mass murder rampage heard shockingly conflicting evidence from two RCMP officers who were at the scene of one of the 22 victims.

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Both accounts are heartbreaking, but the stark inconsistency between two veteran officers, as well as in some of their earlier statements, remained frustratingly unreconciled Thursday, prompting some in the public gallery to yell “liar” during the hearing.

RCMP Const. Ian Fahie was the first to take the stand in a public inquiry into the killing of Gabriel Wortman, who was posing as an RCMP officer.

Fahie spoke of efforts to save Heather O’Brien, 55, who was shot in her car while driving near Debert, NS, on the morning of April 19, 2020.

He said he and his colleague Devonna Coleman arrived and found O’Brien’s Jetta in a ditch. He said he guarded the area from the road, providing “lethal supervision” while Coleman checked on the driver.

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He said he aggressively ordered a firefighter who arrived to help to leave out of fear the gunman was still in the area, cursing him. He did the same, perhaps without cursing, when one of O’Brien’s daughters, Michaella Scott, came up and said “that’s my mom’s car.”

She dialed a phone and a phone rang in the car, Fahie said, but she felt it was too dangerous for her to stay there. She then switched roles with Coleman and went to the car, she said.

In a report written soon after, he wrote of O’Brien, “The female was barely alive and showed very few signs. She faintly pulsed very light noises.” In an earlier interview for the investigation, she said: “I’m trying to park the car and trying to get her out.”

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In his report, in an earlier interview and in testimony on Thursday, Fahie said a member of the Emergency Medical Response Team (EMRT) arrived, tapped the car on the shoulder while trying to treat O’Brien and said, “Got it. ”

Fahie testified that both an ambulance and an air ambulance were called, but were unable to come because of the danger. Her previous words from her were that she was covered with a blanket and had to be left to die.

On Thursday, he called the description a “bad choice of words.” The noises she heard, she said, were just “air and gases leaving the body.” She said that she did not mean that they let her die, but rather that they left her when she died.

He also backed off on whether he actually felt the pulse.

“I know he wanted to take my pulse,” Fahie said Thursday. “I can’t say for sure if I felt a pulse or if it was mine.”

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The amendments angered some in the live audience.

I can’t say for sure if I felt a pulse or if it was mine.

RCMP Const. Ian Fahie

“Liar,” someone yelled.

A member of the public gallery asked how Fahie’s evidence could go from feeling a pulse to not feeling a pulse.

Commission Chairman J. Michael MacDonald, a former Chief Justice of the province, said he understood emotions were running high.

“You do not understand. If that was your wife, would you understand? O’Brien’s husband screamed. Someone clattered out of the room before Fahie continued with his testimony.

The next witness was the EMRT officer who Fahie said tapped him on the shoulder while he was trying to help O’Brien.

RCMP Corporal Duane Ivany said: “That didn’t happen.”

Ivany testified that when he and his partner, Const. Jeff Mahar, arrived on the scene, Fahie and Coleman were on the road behind his car, guns drawn, looking at the tree line.

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He said there was no one in the car and when he and Mahar got to the Jetta, the windows on both sides were open and the doors were stuck shut. He saw a cluster of bullet holes in the driver’s side window, but the glass remained intact. There was no evidence that anyone had been inside to help.

Ivany said she was about to break a window with her baton to get in when Mahar broke the driver’s side window.

When O’Brien was pulled from his car, Ivany was close to his head, looking down and seeing injuries to his upper torso. He yelled that he might have felt a pulse. Mahar questioned this, telling him to look at her.

“I looked down and at that moment I could see a gunshot wound to his left eye,” he said. He said she also felt an exit wound in the back of her head.

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They did a thorough pulse check on different parts of her body and found no pulse. She said he shined a light in her right eye to see if her pupil would react and she didn’t.

He said “there was no ability to make any resuscitation efforts.”

Ivany was asked if an ambulance or helicopter ambulance would have made a difference. He said that not even a surgeon in an emergency room could help.

He said he got a blanket and covered her body.

During cross-examination, Ivany was asked about a chest seal, a medical device sometimes used to treat chest wounds, that had been applied to O’Brien’s body.

He said it’s possible he or his partner applied it as an initial treatment effort before realizing it wasn’t necessary.

Despite someone calling Fahie a “liar” during Fahie’s testimony, one of O’Brien’s daughters previously said on Facebook that Ivany’s version “doesn’t line up with the facts we have on paper.”

Darcy Dobson posted data from O’Brien’s Fitbit, an exercise bracelet that monitors the body’s movement and activity, and displays his heartbeat for hours after the shooting. She said the data was provided to the research but not included in its documentation.

The investigation continues on May 10.