An RCMP investigator told a close friend of the NS man who killed 22 people that police had no plans to hold the Maine man responsible for giving the killer a gun, but wanted to know how the shooter acquired his weapons and has smuggled across the border to ensure that the weapons do not reach Canada in the future.
A transcript of the May 2020 RCMP interview with Sean Conlog, a Holton resident in Maine who has known Gabriel Wortman for more than two decades, was published online by a public inquiry into the April 2020 mass shooting.
An investigation by CBC News found that although Conlog and at least one other man in Maine may have violated U.S. federal law by helping the shooter obtain two of the weapons he used during the April 2020 riot, they are unlikely to be charged.
It is illegal for an American to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport or deliver firearms to someone he knows is not a US resident. Investigators believe the shooter, who did not have a firearms license, obtained three of the weapons he used during the Holton massacre and smuggled them into Canada.
Police traced two of his weapons back to Conlog, who told investigators he had no idea what his friend was up to. In a four-hour interview, an RCMP sergeant. Greg Vardy asked him about their connection, the weapons, and the border crossings.
The gunman often stayed at Conlog’s home and received online orders at his address. Conlog said he gave Wortman a Ruger pistol as a “token of appreciation” for the work he had done around his property during his visits.
The gunman often stays at his friend Sean Conlog’s home in Holton, Maine. He had parcels, including parts of the cruiser he had built, sent there, and he would take them back across the border. (Eric Walliscroft / CBC)
In response, Vardy told the Conlogue that it was illegal to do so.
“I’m not interested in blaming you … I want to know the truth,” the mountain said.
“We have no idea that we will come here after Sean Conlog for this event. It is about knowing what happened to these 22 families so that these things do not happen again in the future. In the future, these weapons will never cross that line. ”
Frequent border crossings
Search warrant documents show that the Canadian Border Service found that the gunman had crossed the border into Woodstock, New Bay, a short drive from Holton, 15 times in the two years before the shooting.
This included in April 2019, when the shooter stayed with Conlogue for a week to help him after leg surgery. During the visit, police believe Wortman bought a powerful rifle – a 5.56mm semi-automatic rifle from the Colt Law Enforcement brand – after attending a local gun show.
After the police shot and killed the shooter at a gas station in Enfield, the National Assembly, they found five firearms in his possession, three pistols and two rifles. He received three of them in Holton, Maine. (Commission on Mass Victims)
Conlog said he was in bed recovering and did not go to the show, but suggested Wortman was dating a mutual friend. Vardi named the man, but the public investigation did not release any documents related to interviews with him.
He told Vardi that he saw the shooter counting money and recalled seeing a rifle the day before the shooter left to return home to Nova Scotia.
I said, “What the hell do you need something like that for?” And I think his words were, “I’ve always wanted one,” according to a transcript of his RCMP statement.
Carrying weapons across the border
Conlog also told the RCMP that he believed Wortman had taken the rifle back to Canada by wrapping it in the aluminum cover of his truck.
“The day they left … He was working on the winding top,” Conlog said, adding that he “did not want to rock the boat” and never asked specifically about the gun or the border checkpoint.
Others, including Conlog’s friend Scott Shaffer and the shooter’s partner, Lisa Banfield, also told investigators they believed the weapons were smuggled in this way.
A photo of the shooter’s many cars, including a Ford F-150 pickup truck, on the back right, witnesses say he often used when traveling across the Maine border. (Commission on Mass Victims)
Banfield said she asked her husband about it, and he explained that he would leave the hood rolled up and the back of the F-150 open.
“So if they’re looking for something, they’re looking inside, they won’t have a reason to open the lid,” Banfield told RCMP on April 28, 2020, adding that he denied carrying weapons across the border while she was with him.
Conlog also knew that Wortman had carried weapons across the border before.
After the death of their mutual friend, Fredericton attorney Tom Evans, Conlogue said Wortman wrapped Evans’ Ruger Mini in a blanket and brought it to Maine. This rifle was another weapon found at the end of the 13-hour villa.
Police tracked a 9mm Ruger P89 submachine gun back to Holton, Maine, and Conlog told them he gave it to the shooter. He said his friend took a 23 .40 caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol from his home. Police found the gun in the stolen car that the assailant was driving when he was killed. (CBC News / Illustration)
As he initially spoke to Vardy, Conlog was unclear about two Glock pistols that had disappeared from his home before explaining that Wortman had called him in the fall of 2017 to say he had taken them. Conlog said his friend had permission to use the guns, but the deal was that they had to stay at his home in Holton.
“I did not know until he told me that he had carried these weapons across the border [pretty] he almost had a heart attack, “Conlog said in an interview with RCMP.
“It broke my heart because he betrayed the trust I had in him… I probably had something to say at the time.”
Information crucial for border security
Ronald Vitielo, a former head of the U.S. Border Patrol, said someone close to the shooter said his activities could have affected how agents interacted with the armed man during his numerous border crossings.
He said people who know the perpetrator are the best source of up-to-date intelligence.
“If someone who has been suspected of illegal activity goes to the RCMP or goes to the local authorities or goes to the border authorities and says, ‘Hey, look, we think this person is doing X, Y and Z'” it was enough to take a closer look at his trip back and forth a little more, “he told CBC News.
“He emphasizes the need for individuals to report suspicious activity. It emphasizes the need for both sides to cooperate on the security regime in order to protect both the border community and the homeland as a whole, right? Both Canada and the United States. ”
Covering the tone at the rear of the vehicle would be a common place to look if the shooter was identified as a potential threat, he said.
According to the search warrant, the gunman drove approximately five hours to Maine 15 times in the two years before the shooting, the Canadian Border Service said. (CBC News / Illustration)
The Canadian Border Protection Agency told the CBC it was using “data, intelligence and risk indicators to identify illegal firearms”.
“Intelligence-led” border agents use instruments that include X-ray machines, including handhelds, and dog detectors, the government agency told CBC News.
“Their specialized training, experience and knowledge in detecting smuggling and prohibited or restricted goods allow them to always be on the alert for dangerous goods,” the statement said.
But witnesses who spoke to police, including Banfield, said Wortman was rarely searched. He had a NEXUS card, which meant that both the United States and Canada considered him a low-risk passenger.
NEXUS card for low risk passengers
Anyone can apply for NEXUS. The program is designed to speed up border crossings.
Applicants must go through an interview process and pass risk assessments from US and CBSA customs and border controls.
Criminal convictions will be shown at these inspections, and new convictions will result in the revocation of someone’s membership, Rebecca Purdy, a senior CBSA spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Wortman has no criminal record, although he was released on parole after pleading guilty to assault in 2001. Fulfilling the conditions set by the court, which included a nine-month probation period and a $ 50 fine, meant the case could be allowed without a sentence in his archives.
Once approved, NEXUS members crossing the land border show their card to a reader. They then pass a border guard who decides whether they should enter the inspection area, the CBSA told CBC.
Members may still be subject to in-depth searches, as anyone crossing the border could be sent for a second search, the agency said in a statement. References occur as a result of factors such as document validation, declaration of goods and payment of duties and taxes.
It says everyone should report controlled or restricted items such as firearms, and people importing goods should also not use the NEXUS tape.
The CBSA has a line at the top
Vitielo said authorities need people to report illegal activity in order for the system to work well.
“Having a regime that allows passengers and people at low risk to get in and out on both sides comfortably and without friction is a good thing, isn’t it?” That helps boost both economies, “Vitielo said.
“He emphasizes the need for co-operation between border authorities – co-operation on intelligence and threats of crime or terrorism.”
CBSA said people can always report CBSA Border Watch concerns by calling the phone line or submitting information online.
In fiscal 2021-2022, the agency confiscated 955 weapons at border crossings, including unrestricted, restricted and banned firearms. That was it…
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