Nova Scotia mass shooter intended to kill ‘at least five others,’ RCMP say - Toronto Star

HALIFAX—The man responsible for Canada’s worst mass killing intended to kill at least five more people — including his partner’s sister — during last year’s rampage in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 victims, police say.

The assertion is found in court documents obtained by the Star that the RCMP have filed in response to a class-action lawsuit. The suit, launched on behalf of the families of the killer’s victims, has named the RCMP and the province of Nova Scotia as defendants.

“In total, he killed 22 people and one of the victim’s unborn child, and I believe he intended to kill at least five others,” writes RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell, in the affidavit.

The affidavit also offers a rationale for the national police force’s controversial decision to use Twitter to alert the public to the gunman at large, citing the RCMP’s previous experience in the 2014 Moncton mass shooting, during which three Mounties were killed and two more injured.

The documents, filed this month with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, lay out for the first time a detailed timeline of the Mounties’ response to the Nova Scotia shootings over the 13 hours spanning April 18 and 19 of last year during which the killer terrorized much of Colchester County.

Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist, began his rampage in Portapique, N.S., with the assault and confinement of his common-law spouse, Lisa Banfield. Banfield escaped and hid in the nearby woods overnight, before emerging in the morning to find police.

The carnage ended 13 hours later, on April 19, when police spotted and killed Wortman at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., nearly 100 kilometres away. In between, he had killed 22 people in four different communities, shot pets and set homes on fire. For much of that time, he was driving a replica RCMP car and wearing a Mounties uniform.

The RCMP affidavit contends that Banfield’s sister, in Halifax, was one of Wortman’s intended targets. That information came from Lisa Banfield herself, speaking to police in the morning after having hidden in the woods overnight.

When Halifax Regional Police contacted her sister, members of Banfield’s extended family gave police a photo of Wortman’s fully marked replica RCMP Ford Taurus. That photo was given to RCMP Critical Incident Command around 7:22 a.m., according to the court documents.

The affidavit reveals that among the police on the scene in Portapique on the night of April 18 was an RCMP officer who had earlier ticketed Wortman for speeding on Feb. 12, 2020. At the time, according to the documents, Wortman was driving a decommissioned white 2013 Ford Taurus police cruiser that had reflective tape on the rear bumper.

When multiple witnesses that night told police that the shooter was driving a replica RCMP car, the officer recalled the February speeding ticket and circulated a photograph of Wortman’s licence and the rear of the car he was driving.

By 12:45 a.m., Halifax police were asked to drive by Wortman’s address in Dartmouth where they found a white Ford Taurus, covered with snow, indicating to them that it hadn’t been moved recently.

By 7:30 a.m., the document states, the RCMP were aware — through computer records — of three decommissioned police Ford Taurus cars owned by Wortman and believed they had accounted for all three — two burned out in Portapique, and one covered in snow at his Dartmouth residence.

In fact, the killer was roaming Colchester County in a fourth such car, fully decaled to mimic an RCMP cruiser.

The affidavit refers to the Moncton mass shooting from six years prior and the way social media had been used during that incident.

“Social media posts or ‘tweets’ have been considered an effective way to communicate quickly with the public,” reads the document. “This determination has been based on the direct access to social media by the police, and the fact that the RCMP social media is monitored by and rebroadcast or reported on by news media.”

It says the province contacted the RCMP to offer the use of the province’s Alert Ready system, but as the RCMP were preparing an alert, Wortman was spotted and killed by police.

“To my knowledge, at the time of these events, no police force in Canada had used a provincial emergency alert in relation to an active shooter event,” writes Campbell in the affidavit.

The RCMP account also mentions that around 9:47 a.m. and RCMP officer in the Glenholme area spotted Wortman in his mock Mountie car, turned around and gave chase, but could not catch up to the gunman.

That would have occurred after Wortman had killed Sean McLeod and Alanna Jenkins, their neighbour Tom Bagley, as well as Lillian Hyslop, who was killed on the side of the road.

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The account by the RCMP does not mention video evidence that came to light June 8 — the same day the affidavit was filed — that RCMP officers had a close encounter with Wortman at a Petro-Canada gas station in Elmsdale, N.S.

In surveillance camera footage obtained by Frank magazine, Wortman — at this point the subject of a massive manhunt by police — is shown struggling with the fuel hose at a gas pump as he attempts to fill the car he had stolen from his last victim, Gina Goulet.

On the other side of the pump, watching Wortman, are officers apparently unaware of his identity.

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After returning the hose to the pump, Wortman circles to another gas pump, pauses briefly in his car, then leaves the gas station without incident. Minutes later, an RCMP officer recognized Wortman at an Irving gas station in Enfield, and shot and killed him.

The court documents also does not mention an incident, which took place at the Onslow fire hall the morning of April 19, when in the midst of the manhunt, two RCMP officers opened fire on fellow officers. No one was injured in that incident.

In the wake of the shootings, federal and provincial governments have launched a public inquiry. That inquiry, called the Mass Casualty Commission, on Wednesday announced that public proceedings in the inquiry will take place between Oct. 26 and Dec. 10.

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Nova Scotia mass shooter intended to kill ‘at least five others,’ RCMP say - Toronto Star
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