An RCMP official visited the Nova Scotia shooter about 16 times at his villa in Portapic, NS, in the years before the April 2020 mass shooting, but police never thought there was enough evidence to investigate the man, despite three reports. from people concerned that he had a weapon.
A new report released on Tuesday by the public inquiry into the massacre that killed 22 people sets out actions taken by police in response to complaints against Gabriel Wortman in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
He also describes numerous visits to the villa from the Bible Hill RCMP Const. Greg Wiley, who said he had been in a relationship with the man since 2008 and last saw him in 2017. Wiley was asked to follow up on at least one of the complaints against him.
“We’re getting a million complaints about threats… everyone and their dog is calling,” Wiley told RCMP investigators six days after the shooting, according to a transcript released by the investigation.
“Doing the reviews is – it’s not realistic. I don’t – I don’t think the force dropped the ball on that.”
The first complaint was from an uncle who reported that Wortman had made death threats against his parents who lived in New Brunswick. The second case was a statement circulated by city police in Truro, NS, that Wortman wanted to “kill a cop.” The third time involved a neighbor who alerted police to concerns about his behavior.
In the months following the shooting, the RCMP said it was investigating police contact with the armed man.
The commission investigating more than 20 people – including friends and people who worked on his property – who remember seeing the attacker’s firearms or hearing him talk about them. Some saw him use his pistol and were familiar with the places where he kept them in his villa in Portapique.
Threats to parents since 2010
Cordell Poirier, a retired Halifax Regional Police officer for 35 years, first heard the shooter’s name early on June 2, 2010, when an RCMP officer from Moncton, NB, called to tell him about a threat complaint.
The Mountie said Paul Wortman, the shooter’s father, received a call from his brother Glyn Wortman in Edmonton. Glyn Wortman said Gabriel Wortman called him while he was upset about a family land deal, and he threatened to “go to Moncton and kill his parents,” Poirier recalled in an interview with the commission.
The RCMP official also told Poirier that he had learned from Paul Worthman that his son was “a bad alcoholic and has several long-barreled weapons.”
Poirier and another employee went to Portland Street in Dartmouth, North America, around 3:30 a.m., where Gabriel Wortman lived and had his own dental office. They spoke to his partner, Lisa Banfield, at the door, who said he had fainted 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 Wortman’s threat to his parents.
Although Poirier said he had to speak to him in person and left his card, he heard nothing. He followed his next regular day shift on June 7 and went back to his home on Portland Street, but no one opened the door.
Halifax Regional Police investigators are talking outside the Atlantic Prosthesis Clinic on April 20, 2020, in Dartmouth, NS. The clinic was owned by the attacker and was visited by a Halifax Regional Police officer in 2010 for alleged threats he made to his parents. (Tim Krochak / Getty Images)
On his way back to his cruiser, Poirier said he was called by Wortman, who said he was calling from Banfield’s phone in Portapic.
He would not “admit or deny” the threat to his parents and said he would be absent next month at Portapic’s villa and travel to New England, Poirier told the committee.
When Poirier said he still wanted to meet in the end in person, Wortman clashed and said the only weapons he had in the house were a “pellet pistol and two antique muskets, both non-functional.”
“This conversation ended with him saying, ‘Look, if you’re going to charge, charge me,’ and he hung up,” Poirier said.
Poirier said he tried several times to speak directly to Uncle Glyn Wortman, but always received an answering machine and his calls were never returned.
Poirier then spoke to Paul Wortman. The father was “convinced” that the shooter, who did not have a firearms license, had several serious weapons, including pistols and long-barreled weapons, but Paul Worthman had not seen them for more than five years.
Given this time difference, Poirier noted in his report that “no public safety order can be obtained without prior notification.” He also told Paul Wortman that the threat file could not go anywhere unless he received “some cooperation” from his uncle.
Shortly after talking to Gabriel Wortman, Poirier said he spoke to Wiley on the phone about the complaint about the firearm. According to Poirier, Wiley “told me he was a good friend” of the man and would go and try to find out if he really had a weapon in his villa.
After police shot and killed a gunman at a gas station in Anfield, NS, they found five firearms in his possession: three pistols and two rifles. He received three of them in Holton, Maine. (Commission on Mass Victims)
He had never heard from Wiley, Poirier said, so he closed the file for his part, as there was “no reason” to follow or charge a threat.
“I hoped that with the information I gave to the RCMP, they would be able to find something of their own,” Poirier told the committee.
Wiley knew about Worthman’s family dispute from previous visits to his villa in Portapic while patrolling the area.
However, his memory differs from Poirier’s story. In an interview with the RCMP on April 25, 2020, Wiley said he did not recall hearing directly from another officer about the specific firearm complaint – just an email. However, he went to see the suspect.
“So, even after the email came out, I was in and he was fine with me, 100 percent, so I don’t know if there’s an element of caution on the part of the police or anything like that in the email, I can’t remember, but I thought he’s not a threat to me, “Wiley said in an interview.
Wiley also said he had not seen any evidence of firearms from the approximately 16 times he had been there over the years.
He had developed a professional relationship with the shooter years earlier, describing him as polite and friendly after responding to a burglary in his garage where tools had been stolen. Wiley said that after most of the tools were retrieved and the case closed, he often met with the man.
“I knew the value of having a few people in the community you’re going to, and ironically that’s the irony of it. for or someone – someone who should be on our radar? And isn’t it ironic how things turned out? ”Wiley said.
Wiley said he did not see any weapons at the villa.
Advice to police that he wanted to “kill a cop”
The next time Poirier saw the shooter’s name was in a report on May 3, 2011 by Capt. Greg Densmore of the Truro Police Department. Densmore said an unknown man approached him during the service and said Worthman “said he wanted to kill a cop.”
According to the Densmore report, the source said Wortman had “at least one gun” to take between Dartmouth and Portapic, plus “several long rifles located in his villa” that could be stored in a “compartment behind the flue.” .
The report was also issued as an “employee safety bulletin” to all police agencies in the province on May 4th. It said police had told Wortman that he was under a lot of stress and had “mental problems.”
“Be extremely careful when working with WORTMAN,” the bulletin said.
“Of course, when I saw this one, the first thing I noticed was the name, and you know, din-dong, I said, ‘I remember it,'” Poirier told the committee.
Poirier called Densmore to fill it with the 2010 threat file, and Densmore said a source told him that Wortman kept his gun in his nightstand.
Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row left: Gina Gulet, Dawn Gulenchin, Jolin Oliver, Frank Gulenchin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Hall, Lisa McCully, Joey Weber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joan Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom line: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corey Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
At the time, Poirier said he had called the Biblical Hill Squad again and talked to Wiley, filling him with Truro’s report and telling him that an RCMP member should be sent to talk to Worthman.
He had not spoken to Wiley again until July 17, Poirier said, and Wiley had not yet spoken to Wortman. Poirier said he was “surprised” that the RCMP officer had not met with the man more than a month after receiving the report.
Poirier also spoke with current supervisor Const. John McMinn of the Bible Hill RCMP and told him about the Densmore report. McMinn said he would review Wiley’s 2010 threat file to “determine what action, if any, was taken last year” and would return to Poirier within a day.
But Poirier said it never happened, so in his view, “it was” and he left the RCMP case.
“I wasn’t going to call all the time with the words ‘what’s going on?’
Poirier said this was the last time he heard about the shooter until “that horrible day when I heard the name” after the mass shooting in 2020.
In an interview with police, Wiley said he did not remember seeing the Densmore newsletter detailing that Wortman wanted to kill a cop or talking to McMinn.
According to the commission’s documents, Densmore could not find …
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