Care worker killed in Canada shooting was pregnant with second child, husband says

An impromptu memorial outside the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Nova Scotia
Getty Images
Imogen Braddick23 April 2020

A devastated husband has revealed his wife was pregnant with their second child when she was shot dead in Canada's deadliest mass shooting over the weekend.

Kristen Beaton, a care assistant who worked for Victorian Order of Nurses, was one of 22 victims shot by 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman during his 12-hour rampage across Nova Scotia.

She is survived by her husband Nick and their three-year-old son, Daxton.

Nick said his wife had been treating coronavirus patients on the frontline of the pandemic, while carrying the couple's second child.

They had planned to share the news about the pregnancy this week while she had some time off work.

“Our son Daxton was going to wear a shirt and let everybody know,” Nick told CTV News.

Nick said that he spoke to Kristen on the phone just minutes before she was killed, warning that the gunman was at their friend's home.

He said: "I didn't find out until at least an hour later from people on social media that he had an RCMP cruiser and that's what he was driving and dressed as an officer when he cowardly, extremely cowardly took my wife's life and our unborn baby."

Residents of the quiet Portapique community were left shaken by the atrocity
REUTERS

Nick has now vowed to carry on Kristen's fight for personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and "be her voice".

"We are trying to make some positive out of this senseless act," he said. "Kristen was so passionate about her job...and loved all her clients dearly.

"Every morning before she went to work, she would cry, and every night she would come home, she would have to strip on the doorstep and go and shower before she could hold our son Daxton.

"The fact her PPE was not provided for her scared the living daylights out of her."

Nick said he wanted to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to explain why PPE was not being provided to healthcare professionals.

Asked the question at a daily news briefing, Mr Trudeau said: "To Nick and to all the families going through a heart-wrenching loss right now, looking for answers, looking for reasons, looking for support, we are there for you and we will be there for you.

"Like so many people across the country who are worried about what the next days will bring, our front-line workers have been worried about the availability of PPE."

A GoFundMe page set up in memory of Kristen and to help her family has raised more than $70,000.

Another healthcare worker, Heather O’Brien, a licensed practical nurse, was also identified as one of the victims, according to Von Canada.

The rampage began late Saturday, and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly.

Constable Heidi Stevenson (NOVA SCOTIA RCMP/AFP via Getty Images)
NOVA SCOTIA RCMP/AFP via Getty I

Police said in an earlier news release that they believed there were 23 victims but a spokesman later clarified the death toll included 22 victims and the gunman.

Police have warned the death toll will almost certainly rise as investigators comb through homes destroyed by fire.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about why a public emergency alert was not sent as the rampage ensued. Police provided Twitter updates, but no alert that would have automatically popped up on mobile phones.

In a letter to the Governor-General and the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, she paid tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for their “bravery and sacrifice".

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