Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, was also among the dead in the weekend attack. Police did not provide a motive for the killings.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said the gunman killed at least 18.
“How could this happen? We may never know why,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference. “But we do know this. No one man’s action can build a wall between us and a better day — no matter how evil, how thoughtless or how destructive.”
Police began advising residents overnight on Saturday in the rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles north of Halifax, to lock their doors and stay in their basements.
Several bodies were later found inside and outside one home on Portapique Beach Road, the street where the suspect lived, authorities said.
Bodies were also found at several other locations within about a 30-mile area from the neighborhood where the shootings began late on Saturday, and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly.
Several homes in the area were set on fire.
At least four white forensic vans were seen on Monday morning entering the neighborhood where the shootings began.
Authorities said the suspected gunman wore a police uniform at one point and made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser.
“That fact that this individual had a uniform and a police car at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act,” Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said.
He said many of the victims did not know the shooter and authorities believe he acted alone.
