Killer’s father blamed police for shoddy probe
When police visited Gabriel Wortman’s father looking for clues as to what motivated the Dartmouth denturist to murder 22 people in April 2020, he instead heaped scorn on them for not doing more to investigate his son’s threat to kill his parents a decade earlier.
Two RCMP officers visited Paul Wortman at his Moncton home on May 8, 2020, less than a month after his son dressed up as a police officer and went on a 13-hour killing spree in a fake police car.
“I have nothing to tell you, honest to God,” the killer’s father said at first.
Instead, Paul Wortman peppered Const. Dayle Burris with questions about how police dealt with death threats his son had made against him and his wife, Evelyn, a decade before the mass murders.
“Apparently there was an investigation. A constable went to see my son in Portapique,” Paul Wortman said in an interview released this week by the Mass Casualty Commission.
“He asked him point blank did you threaten to shoot your parents. What do you think he said?”
Burris guessed the Dartmouth denturist answered no.
“That was the end of the conversation, that was the end of the matter,” Paul Wortman said. “I would hope … you’re here today to gather information.”
The killer’s father told Burris: “If I had a uniform. I don’t know how seasoned that officer was … or how gullible he would be, but it sounds pretty serious when somebody’s threatening (their parents with) murder.”
Police did investigate, but never laid charges against Gabriel Wortman for uttering those threats. Evidence gathered by the Mass Casualty Commission shows they were sparked by an abusive upbringing, a family land deal gone sour, and his parents’ revelation in his 40s that he had a younger brother they’d given up for adoption in the U.S.
“That sounded like a threat of murder to me,” Paul Wortman said. “In hindsight … I would hope that in the future when the RCMP get a call like that they just don’t record it, file it (and) walk away … ‘Cause that was a whole bunch of people dead,” he said, referring to the 22 souls, including a pregnant woman, who died at Gabriel Wortman’s hand on April 18 and 19, 2020 before
a Mountie dog handler shot him dead at the Enfield Big Stop.
‘IF I WERE A POLICEMAN’
“If I were a policeman (investigating the threats made a decade previous) I would call the people who complained, or made them aware of the threat,” and ask them if they’ll swear in front of a judge that they received that call, Paul Wortman said. “Because if you are, we’ll carry this further and get a search warrant. Because I know he has sidearms.”
If that had occurred, “his weapons would have been seized,” said the killer’s dad.
“My son would be alive today … if they had found his weapons.”
Paul Wortman said he phoned the RCMP a year or two after the death threats to check on the case. “I think it was a corporal that told me, that police officer, who initially went to my son, has become rather friendly or chummy with him, whatever term was used. Now there’s a whole bunch of people dead. My wife and I are never going to get over this. And those people will never get over this.”
‘HE KNEW HE WAS GONNA DIE’
He told police the April 2020 killings were his son’s way of committing suicide.
“You don’t go shooting people and expect to get away with it; my son was not dumb,” Paul Wortman said. “He knew what he was doing, and he knew he was gonna die. Why he had to do what he did he probably didn’t have the guts to click one off.”
His son’s effort to mock up a replica police car “shows that he planned it for quite some time,” said the killer’s dad. “He knew exactly how he would build up to like a crescendo in an opera … going more over the edge or getting closer to the edge,” before he “snapped.”
The public inquiry has heard Gabriel Wortman had a drinking problem, consuming as many as a dozen beers a day. His father said his eldest son was drinking on the night he called threatening to kill his parents.
Paul Wortman told investigators two of his brothers are retired Mounties. When another brother heard of the threat, Paul Wortman played it down. “I said to my brother, he’s not gonna come and shoot us, he’s drunk.”
‘HE BEAT THE HELL OUTA ME’
But he had experienced violence at his son’s hands during a vacation at a Cuban resort.
“He got drunk and beat the hell outa me,” Paul Wortman said.
“He started saying that I wasn’t much of a father and all this stuff.”
Paul Wortman said he felt hurt and began to cry. “I said I’m sorry if … you feel that … I’m a rotten father.”
That didn’t stop his son. “He smacked me,” Paul Wortman said. “And I told him you know what I’m not gonna fight back. So, he straddles me on some kind of a picnic bench or something and started pounding the hell out of me. I was actually unconscious. I don’t know how many times he hit me after that, but I remember waking up and there was a couple … of ah staff … pulling him away. And then he was in a rage like he was gonna fight them and then the manager came out. And I just, everybody realized this is out of hand. So that was that.”
‘MONTHS AFTER WE DID HUG’
He eventually forgave his son. “Months after we did hug, and as ... far as I was concerned it was over.”
Paul Wortman admitted he also “had a hell of a temper,” and that he did a lot of screaming, but that he never hit his son.
“I was brought up in a violent family,” said the killer’s dad.
Paul Wortman expressed sorrow for the victims’ families.
“As long as those people live, if they live to be eighty years old they’re gonna remember their lost loved ones. My wife and I both said to each other I would have stepped in front of a firing squad to prevent that, and she would of done the same.”
‘HE DID SOME AMAZING THINGS’
Paul Wortman also praised his son’s entrepreneurial spirit and ability to fix anything without instructions.
“When he was growing up he did some amazing things as far as his intelligence goes,” said the killer’s father. “Things that I even told him he was much more intelligent than I am. He shown indications (that) he was an entrepreneur when he was six years old.”
As he grew, he was naturally mechanical, able to adjust 18-speed bicycles. “So he charged the kids a dollar to tune up their bikes. Everything he did … he did it well … he was apparently third in his weight class for the province (of New Brunswick) in (Greco Roman) wrestling.”
The killer’s dad described his eldest son as thin, tall and “a very strong, solid person.”
He told investigators that after his son studied at UNB, he got into the embalming trade, but later realized there wasn’t much money in it if you don’t own the funeral home.
That’s when he decided to become a denturist.
“Somehow, he learned that street people, people on social services, were entitled to have dentures,” said his father. “So, he used to carry business cards with him and pass them out. His business grew because of that.”
Paul Wortman bragged to police about his son’s intelligence, though what he described seemed more like deceptive business practices than anything.
“I’ll tell you how smart he was, he took a map of Halifax. … And ah, marked where all the competition was. And he set up an office — a complete dental operation, in a strategical spot that he didn’t want anybody encroaching on his business.”
But the office was “never officially ever … to open,” he said.
“Not a patient ever went in it. He put a sign on it and business cards and said, ah this is temporarily closed, come to this address and we’ll look after you.”
When a denturist closed in Bedford, Gabriel Wortman quickly took over their phone number, said his dad. “So he had a separate line hooked in, and he told his ah, staff that ah, when that phone rings, you know it’s from the other place, and tell them it’s temporarily closed and we’ll handle your business in Dartmouth.”
Paul Wortman said his son would tell him about abusing Lisa Wortman, his commonlaw spouse. “He tied her up and beat her.”
In practically the same breath, the killer’s dad said, “He treated Lisa very well. Last time I saw her she was driving a white Mercedes he bought for her. He bought her some kinda jewelry worth a few thousand bucks, he was very kind to her.”
KILLER’S FATHER WORE RCMP BOOTS TO MOTORCYCLE
The killer’s dad admitted he once had a pair of RCMP high brown boots for motorcycling.
He told investigators he rides Harley-davidson motorcycles “with a whole bunch of RCMP officers that are retired in this city. … I know more about police than most people would think.”
In a bizarre tangent, he told police he knew of a group of seven or eight retired Mounties who used to gather at a restaurant to discuss ways “to milk the federal government to get different perks and so on because of their alleged illness.”
They were all “getting access to marijuana,” to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, noting they were allowed 10 grams a month.
Paul Wortman initially thought one of them had a Sobeys bag full of pot. “He can’t even smoke a fraction of what he gets every week. Or every two weeks. And he said no, he said garbage bag full, and he’s selling it. Highly respected policeman.”
The killer’s mother, Evelyn Wortman, disappeared upstairs for the bulk the police interview.
“She’s crying, I’d like you guys to say goodbye, if you don’t mind,” said her husband.