Warning: details in this story may be disturbing to some.
The wife of the man responsible for a mass shooting in Nova Scotia told an inquest Friday that she lied to police about his illegal guns and didn’t report previous violence because she was afraid of him.
Lisa Banfield struggled to keep her composure as she described how her partner beat her in 2003 as witnesses looked on, and she offered new details about what happened when her husband threatened to kill her parents in 2010.
It was the first time she had spoken publicly about her life with the killer and the inquest’s decision to spare her from cross-examination proved controversial. Lawyers from a firm representing the families of 14 of the victims, as well as about 20 of those family members, walked out of the hearing in protest before it ended.
The inquest heard that Banfield was beaten and seriously injured by Gabriel Wartman on the night of April 18, 2020, just before he went on a shooting spree that would claim 22 lives. She told investigators she fled into the woods and emerged the next morning to tell police her partner was still at large and driving a vehicle that looked just like an RCMP cruiser.
Banfield said she will forever be haunted by her decision to run away, as she wonders if her husband might have hurt her and then left the others alone.
“I often wonder if any of these people died? So that’s something that haunts me all the time because I feel like they weren’t targeted. He was looking for me in the beginning,” she said.
Banfield’s testimony was at times painful and dramatic as she described what happened in June 2010, when Wortman’s uncle alerted Halifax police that his nephew had threatened to kill his parents over a property dispute.
She says he fired a gun at their Dartmouth home at the time he threatened to kill his parents. “I don’t know if he was trying to scare me or scare me….(cries) so I don’t say anything.” #MCC
— Heidi Petracek (@HeidiPCTV) July 15, 2022
Banfield recalls how the killer had been drinking heavily and fired a bullet into the wall of their home in Dartmouth, North Carolina, terrifying her. When a Halifax police officer arrives at their door, Banfield admits she lied when asked about the death threats and whether her husband owned a gun.
When committee attorney Jillian Hnatiou asked why she lied, Banfield sobbed as she explained.
“He kept the gun next to the nightstand and said, ‘If the police come, I’m going to shoot,'” she said. “So when they asked me that, I didn’t want them to come in because I didn’t want them (the police) to get hurt.
When an RCMP officer showed up at the couple’s summer home in Portapeak, NS, after the death threat was reported, Wortman insisted he had no firearms except an old musket and another antique weapon hanging near the fireplace and “full of wax,” Banfield testified.
She says Cst. Greg Wiley came over to the cottage to ask Wortman about his guns. Wortman showed him an old musket, and a gun over the mantelpiece, filled with wax, was an exhibit. She says Wortman knew Wiley and could tell they knew each other. #MCC
— Heidi Petracek (@HeidiPCTV) July 15, 2022
She confirmed that the officer in question was Const. Greg Wiley, who knew Wortman for years and later told investigators he visited his Portapeak home 16 times.
Hnatiw also asked Banfield about a violent attack on a gathering at Sutherland Lake, north of Portapique. In earlier interviews with the inquiry, she indicated the attack took place in 2001 or 2002, but confirmed on Friday that the actual date was 2003.
She testified that when she tried to leave the party, Wortman became angry. As the two drove away in his SUV, he began hitting her, she said.
“And as I was going back down the back road, he’s yelling at me,” she said as the hearing room fell silent. “He started punching me in the face. I’m thinking, ‘I’ve never been hit by anyone before… and I’m trying to drive. He just kept hitting me in the head.”
She said she jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the woods. He ran after her and caught her.
“He grabbed my hair and was hitting me and I was trying to protect myself,” she said. “I was screaming. He pulled me out onto the road … and then I saw these two (all-terrain vehicles) and their lights were on me. He looked up and dropped me.”
Banfield said Wortman was later placed in the back of a police car and driven back to their home in Portapeak.
Asked why she refused to report the assault to the police, Banfield said: “It’s the first time I’ve ever been hit and I didn’t want to cause anyone any trouble. I just thought I was leaving.’
Hnatiw also asked Banfield about the early stages of the couple’s relationship, which began in 2001 after they met in a downtown Halifax bar. Banfield said that on their first date he showed up with two dozen long-stemmed roses. “I thought it was too much,” she said.
But later that evening, she was impressed by his reaction when his car was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by a young woman. “He approached the two young girls in the vehicle. He was smiling,” she said. “He said, ‘It’s all right.’ He was very calm. I thought, “He’s a good guy.”
Earlier this week, the commission released a document based on evidence Banfield provided during interviews with the RCMP and the investigation, detailing the killer’s long history of abuse toward her. It said she would not be cross-examined, mainly because she could be traumatized by having to relive the abuse she experienced.
Still, attorney Michael Scott, whose firm represents the families of 14 of the victims, says the decision to limit the questioning will leave Banfield’s testimony still in doubt.
Scott, several other attorneys at his firm and about 20 family members the firm represents left the hearing in the afternoon. “We’ve decided with our customers that we’ve heard enough and we’re going to leave by the end of the day,” he said.
Families represented by Patterson Law decided to leave and not return until #MCC testimony ends
— Heidi Petracek (@HeidiPCTV) July 15, 2022
“I don’t know if Ms. Banfield is lying, I don’t know if she’s telling the truth, I don’t know if Ms. Banfield is wrong because we don’t have the opportunity to ask her questions. “
In afternoon testimony, Hnatiw asked Banfield if she ever suspected her husband might harm others, given that she knew he owned a mock-up RCMP cruiser, illegal weapons and stockpiles of gas and cash.
She replied that she thought it had to do with his paranoia about the pandemic. “He was saying crazy things and I turned him in because I didn’t want to listen to what he was saying,” she said.
During the 13 hours he was at large, the killer fatally shot 22 people, including a pregnant woman and a Mountie. He was shot dead by two Mounties on the morning of April 19, 2020.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 15, 2022.
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