Killer carried gun permit despite lifetime weapons ban
Despite a lifetime weapons ban, Basil Borutski still carried a firearms possession and acquisition licence in his wallet up to the day he killed three women, two with a shotgun, on Sept. 22, 2015.
His card was later entered into evidence in Borutski’s triple-murder trial after investigators found it, along with the other contents of his wallet, in the console of the car he drove to the first murder scene that day.
Documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Sun show Borutski, 60, was first granted a possession and acquisition licence (PAL) on July 9, 2007.
The licence, administered federally through each province’s chief firearms officer, expires after five years. Borutski was issued a new card in July 2012.
Later that same month, he was arrested while living at Nathalie Warmerdam’s Foymount Road farmhouse, and later convicted on domestic charges for threatening to “hang” her son Adrian.
The licence was revoked on Dec. 20, 2012 following a court-ordered 10-year weapons ban. He was then slapped with a lifetime weapons ban in 2014 following a second conviction on domestic charges related to Anastasia Kuzyk.
While his permit to acquire and possess a weapon was officially revoked, Borutski evidently still held onto his licence card.
The card bore an expiry date of Oct. 17, 2017, Borutski’s 60th birthday, which he spent in the prisoner’s box at his trial.
There is, however, no evidence Borutski ever used the card to attempt to purchase a restricted or prohibited firearm.
He claimed in a police interview the morning after the murders to have found the gun and salvaged some shells from a scrapyard, years before the killings.
An official with Ontario’s chief firearms office, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak candidly about the program, said Borutski would have set off alarm bells had he tried to buy a gun with a revoked licence.
He could, however, have been able to walk out of a sporting goods store with freshly purchased ammunition, the official confirmed.
Before selling ammunition, though, the retailer is required to record the buyer’s name, date of birth, home address, and the quantity and type of bullets purchased.
The buyer would also have to show a second piece of government-issued identification, since the PAL does not bear the holder’s address.
If a prospective buyer attempts to buy a gun with a revoked licence, “we will flag it,” the official said.
Retailers are linked to the RCMPmanaged database, and the chief firearms office will contact the seller to say the transaction cannot be processed.
“If it’s blocked, there’s a reason and it’s usually not a good reason,” the official said.
If someone barred from purchasing a weapon attempts to buy a restricted or prohibited firearm, the office will also alert police in that jurisdiction to the attempted transaction.
An offender is required to surrender all prohibited weapons following a court revocation order, and the duty then falls on law enforcement to seize any firearms and related documents, including the licence card and registration.
But, the official acknowledged, there’s little recourse if the offender does not surrender his licence — if he wasn’t carrying the card at the time of arrest, for instance. ahelmer@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ helmera