RCMP officer visited N.S. gunman at least 16 times, but says he saw no weapons
CBC
An RCMP officer visited the Nova Scotia gunman about 16 times at his Portapique, N.S., cottage in the years before the April 2020 mass shooting, but police never felt there was enough evidence to investigate the man despite three reports from people concerned he had guns.
A new report released Tuesday by the public inquiry examining the mass shooting that took 22 lives lays out the actions police took in response to complaints about Gabriel Wortman in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
It also details numerous visits made to the cottage by Bible Hill RCMP Const. Greg Wiley, who said he developed a rapport with the man beginning around 2008 and last saw him in 2017. Wiley was asked to follow up on at least one of the complaints against him.
"We get a gazillion threats complaints … everybody and their dog's phoning in," Wiley told RCMP investigators six days after the shooting, according to a transcript released by the inquiry.
"Doing the, the checkups it's — it's not realistic. I don't — I don't think the force dropped the ball on this."
The first complaint was from an uncle who reported Wortman had made death threats against his parents, who lived in New Brunswick. The second instance was a tip circulated by town police in Truro, N.S., that Wortman wanted to "kill a cop." The third time involved a neighbour who reported to police concerns about his behaviour.
In the months after the shootings, RCMP said they were looking into what contact police previously had with the gunman.
The commission leading the public inquiry spoke to more than 20 people — including friends and people who worked on his property — who recalled seeing the gunman's firearms or hearing him talk about them. Some saw him use his gun and were familiar with the places he stored them in his cottage in Portapique.
Cordell Poirier, a retired Halifax Regional Police officer of 35 years, first heard the gunman's name early on June 2, 2010, when a RCMP officer from Moncton, N.B., called to tell him about a threats complaint.
The Mountie said Paul Wortman, the gunman's father, had gotten a call from his brother Glynn Wortman in Edmonton. Glynn Wortman said Gabriel Wortman had called him while upset about a family land deal, and he was threatening to "go to Moncton and kill his parents," Poirier recalled in an interview with the commission.
The RCMP officer also told Poirier he'd learned from Paul Wortman that his son was "a bad alcoholic, and has possession of several long-barrel weapons."
Poirier and another officer went around 3:30 a.m. to the Portland Street address in Dartmouth, N.S., where Gabriel Wortman lived and had his denturist office. They spoke to his partner, Lisa Banfield, at the door, who said he had passed out drunk a few hours earlier.
Banfield told them there were no weapons in the house, Poirier said in his initial report, and would not confirm or deny the threat Wortman made about his parents.
Although Poirier said he needed to speak with him in person and left his card, he did not hear anything. He followed up on his next regular day shift on June 7, and went to the Portland Street home again but no one answered the door.