HALIFAX—The death toll of the Nova Scotia shooting rampage has risen to 23, as RCMP confirmed Tuesday they had found bodies at the sites of fires connected to the mass shooting. That’s an increase from the 19 confirmed victims announced Monday, at which point the Mounties said they expected to recover more bodies. The youngest of the confirmed victims was 17 years old.Police also confirmed Tuesday that the RCMP uniform the shooter wore on the weekend while committing his crimes was genuine, while the cruiser he drove was a “look-alike” RCMP vehicle. The gunman in Nova Scotia’s massacre had an assault conviction in 2002, stemming from an incident the victim describes as a bizarre, violent encounter.Court records show the shooter was convicted but conditionally discharged over the Oct. 29, 2001 assault of another male.As a result, Gabriel Wortman was required at the time “not to own, possess or carry a weapon, ammunition, or explosive substance,” for nine months following the decision and to attend “for assessment and counselling in anger management” as directed by his probation officer.Reached by the Star, the victim of the assault said Tuesday that he had been a teenager, waiting outside Wortman’s clinic for a bus, on the day in question.He said Wortman came out in a rage, smelling of alcohol, and hit him in the back of the head.“I was 15 and I’m standing outside of his denture clinic on Portland Street. He came outside. ... He told me to ‘get off the property,’ and he smelled like booze, grabbed my shirt and punched me in the back of the head,” said Matthew, who asked that his name not be used given the notoriety of the case and years that have now passed. “And that’s just the nice part of it,” he said. “I shook that off, tried to defend myself, and as he’s hitting me in the face, one of his friends came out of the house and hit me in the back ...
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