Lloyd Johnson says if it weren’t for his cigar, he could have been victim number 23 of the Nova Scotia shooting.
At around 10:40 a.m. Sunday, the man from Millbrook First Nation wasn’t home when he received a panicked phone call from his daughter.
“She called me and said, ‘Dad, get home. There’s a killer at large,’” said Johnson.
READ MORE: Video appears to show Nova Scotia shooting suspect stop, change clothes amid killing spree
Perplexed, Johnson was hesitant to move. He finished his cigar, sipped the rest of his coffee, then made his way home.
“She called at 10:41, the killer arrived at 10:52, and I got here at 11:10, shortly after he left,” he said.
“I was really lucky because thinking about it, this would have been crime scene number 17 and I would have been victim number 23.”
Video surveillance obtained by Global News from the Mi’kmag’ki trading post in Millbrook First Nation, appears to show the mass shooting suspect pull over along Highway 2, adjacent to Johnson’s driveway.
In the video, a vehicle that looks extremely similar to an RCMP cruiser pulls off the road and rolls to a stop. A man matching the description of 51-year-old denturist, the lone suspect in the killings, climbs out of the vehicle wearing what appears to be an RCMP jacket with reflective yellow markings.
He takes the jacket off, then put on a reflective yellow safety vest. He then climbs back into the vehicle and drives off in the same direction.
Johnson says he didn’t know the shooter was near his house until he saw the surveillance video Tuesday evening.
“I start piecing together where I was and what happened, and I didn’t realize that he had been here just moments before I arrived,” he said. “It’s still sinking in.”
The surveillance video shows the vehicle heading south towards Shubenacadie. Over 50 kilometers away at a gas station in Enfield, RCMP officers stormed the scene and shot and killed the suspect.
Kristin Sylliboy, who works at Keith’s Gas Bar next door, said she learned of the shootings from a friend whose brother is an RCMP officer. When the manager, Keith Julian, learned the suspect may be in the area, the business went into lockdown.
“As a team, we decided it was best to close, and at 10:40 a.m. we decided to close,” she said, so the three employees at the gas bar went home. “It really felt like we were being watched over at that point.”
READ MORE: How a real uniform and replica police car helped the Nova Scotia gunman go undetected
Johnson considers that decision heroic, as the suspect was shot dead at a gas station in a different community.
“My thought is (the shooter) was stopping to gas up,” said Johnson. “Keith saved a lot of lives.”
Johnson says he considers himself one of the lucky ones.
“I just hesitated a bit to finish my cigar,” he said. “I think this cigar saved my life.”
Comments