Neighbours tried to warn police about Portapique gunman's abuse, weapons

Long before he went on his murderous rampage in April 2020, two of Gabriel Wortman's former neighbours saw "red flags" in his behaviour and were wary of everything he said and did. 

"He always put that perception out, 'Hey, I'm easy going, likable,'" recalled George Forbes in an interview with the commission currently examining the killing of 22 people on April 18-19, 2020.

"There are some people that you get to read between the lines on what they're saying … and I could notice that there was some dysfunctionality in his personality and some disorderly traits that I perceived as warning signs."

George and his wife, Brenda, tried to warn others about the gunman, but they say their warnings were ignored.

The couple are both retired from the military. They moved to Portapique in the summer of 2002 and met Wortman about eight months later as he was looking for properties to buy. They eventually became neighbours.

Brenda Forbes told CBC News in an interview this week that staff at the Mass Casualty Commission have been keeping her up to date on the public hearings. She and her husband were both interviewed in the weeks immediately following shootings as RCMP and the commission tried to piece together what had happened, and why.

The Forbes said that when Wortman found out about their military background, he tried to get information from them about weapons and asked each of them whether they could buy him guns or ammunition. The couple refused.

Brenda told the commission that when she asked Wortman where he was getting his guns, he replied, "I have my connections." 

George Forbes, a retired small arms instructor, said Wortman did not handle firearms safely, including not checking whether they were loaded when he showed them off.

At one point, George Forbes confronted Wortman about shooting his guns into the mudflats that are exposed at low tide.

"You've got to stop this, man, because all you need to do is hit one rock and you have a ricochet going somewhere's else where you have no control over that," Forbes said, in relaying his conversation with the gunman to the commission.

He said Wortman dismissed his concern, saying it was just fun.

George Forbes said he opted not to call the RCMP about the backyard shooting because his wife had already contacted police about another incident involving Wortman and didn't get far.

Her complaint involved illegal weapons she'd seen in Wortman's possession. She said police wouldn't act on her information, saying it wasn't current or reliable enough.