There were clear warnings that N.S. veteran would kill his family, inquiry told

In the year leading up to a Nova Scotia veteran fatally shooting his family and himself, clear warning signs of the impending tragedy went unnoticed by doctors, therapists and police officers who were focused on Lionel Desmond's PTSD, a domestic violence expert told a fatality inquiry Wednesday.

Peter Jaffe, director of the Ontario-based Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children, had been asked by the inquiry to review the fatalities — and to determine whether there were risk factors that might have predicted what happened on Jan. 3, 2017.

That evening, Lionel Desmond, 33, entered his in-laws' home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S., and killed his wife, Shanna, with a rifle he'd bought earlier that day. The Afghanistan veteran then shot his 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, and his mother, Brenda, before turning the gun on himself. 

He had been released from an in-patient psychiatric facility less than five months prior, where a team tried unsuccessfully to stabilize Desmond's chronic post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. 

"There was a great deal of focus on trying to keep him alive and functioning," Jaffe told the inquiry. "And what got lost in that focus was that Shanna and Aaliyah were also in danger and, ultimately, also his mother was, as well.

"The mental health problems were so overwhelming that … the danger these mental health problems posed were overlooked."

The inquiry seeks to prevent deaths like those of the Desmond family through recommendations for government and institutional changes. Jaffe told the inquiry that intimate partner deaths "are the most predictable and preventable of homicides," largely because there are well-researched risk factors.

"These aren't inevitable outcomes — these are things where somebody needs to speak to the perpetrator about the path that they're on and there are going to be consequences."

In cases of intimate partner homicides, a review found that there were seven or more risk factors present in 70 per cent of the fatalities in Ontario between 2003 and 2018, according to the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.

Of the 41 risk factors that can predict an increased risk of intimate partner death, Jaffe found 20 were present in Lionel and Shanna's Desmond's relationship. 

Some of those factors included: 

The heightened risk of fatal violence would have been captured "if somebody had done a thorough risk assessment" with either partner in the last month of their lives, Jaffe said. 

"Somebody would have said to Shanna or to Lionel, 'I'm really worried about you. I'm worried about the pattern. I'm worried about all these things — and we need to put in an immediate safety plan,'" he said. "This can't wait for an appointment a month from now or two months from now."

Jaffe's testimony is a critical piece of the inquiry, because it speaks to one of its core mandates: whether the medical professionals the Desmonds interacted with had the training to spot the warning signs of domestic violence.