The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Police chief: Can’t explain away Wortman warnings
David Macneil didn’t want to be alone in the room when he took a call from two of the highest ranking Mounties in the province.
It was a few weeks after Gabriel Wortman had killed 22 Nova Scotians, including a pregnant woman.
The longtime chief of the Truro Police Service knew they knew that he had a copy of a bulletin his department had sent out to police agencies across the province nine years earlier.
It warned that Wortman had “at least one handgun,” which he often carried in his car, presumably had multiple rifles at his residence in Portapique, was mentally unstable and “wanted to kill a cop.”
Macneil had received freedom of information requests from two news outlets wanting access to all his department knew about Wortman – their lawyer had told them the bulletin would fall within those requests.
And now as the province reeled in terror and grief at the scale of the tragedy, RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather and Halifax District Commander Janis Gray wanted to talk about that 2011 bulletin before it went out.
So Macneil called his deputy chief into the room and put the call on speakerphone.
‘BEING NUDGED’ BY RCMP
“The gist of the call was, you know, you’re aware of the bulletin?” recalled Macneil in an interview with representatives of the Mass Casualty Commission.
“Yeah. You know this is going to be (sought under a Freedom of Information request)? Yeah, it is. And it’s going to go out? Yeah, it is. And it’s potentially going to cause some problems? And I said, ‘No, not for us.’ ”
“So we both hung up the phone and both the deputy and I both felt like we were being … nudged in a direction that I wasn’t comfortable with and, and to me it was, this bulletin needs to not surface. It needs to, we need to explain this bulletin away, right. And I wasn’t interested in doing that.”
Macneil was already frustrated with the RCMP before the phone call.
His department had only learned of the unfolding massacre during the early morning hours of April 19 when they were contacted by the Colchester East Hants Health Centre, reporting they had a gunshot victim from a shooting spree in Portapique and wanted his officers to help lock down their facility.
With limited information coming from the RCMP in the early morning hours of April 19, 2020, he learned of gunshots in Onslow, near the borders of his town, via a message from his 19-year-old daughter who’d seen a post on social media that morning.
And now, he was developing the opinion that RCMP brass were too concerned with covering up that they did not act on repeated warnings that Wortman was a danger to the public, armed with illegal guns and what Macneil called a “flawed response” to the incident itself.
‘A BLAME GAME’
The relationship between the RCMP and municipal chiefs would continue to deteriorate as, according to Macneil, the RCMP brought in two high-ranking officers from Ottawa who were dubbed the “issues management team.”
They became concerned with the 2011 bulletin and how a Town of Amherst police officer had found a copy of it in his records and brought the matter of missed warnings to light.
“And it all became to me about a blame game,” Macneil told the commission investigators.
“A, like what did you do, Truro to investigate this? And I’m thinking, no, no, you’re not going down this road with me. And then (to Halifax Regional Police Chief) Dan Kinsella, what did Halifax do? What did you guys do? And then Amherst, how did you have this bulletin? And why is it still alive? Right. And it became very clear, the three chiefs talked afterwards, if became very clear that this is ‘how do I take this bullseye and put it on all the three (municipal) agencies.’”
It was actually worse than one bulletin.
It would turn out that RCMP received at least three warnings that Wortman had illegal weapons at his home in Portapique, was mentally unstable and had been making threats.
And that despite warnings from both Halifax and Truro municipal agencies, they never investigated the claims.
Meanwhile, an RCMP officer had apparently befriended Wortman and made a habit of visiting him and chatting about his projects whenever he happened to be driving through the area.
“I knew the value of having a few people in the community that you go to, and ironically, this is the irony of it, I was going to a guy; him of all guys and asking um, ‘Is there anything that we should know about or anyone – anyone that should be on our radar?” Constable Greg Wiley told commission investigators when they interviewed
him at his current posting in Toronto.
“And isn’t it ironic how things have turned out?”
The officer formerly based at the Bible Hill detachment tells how he met Wortman after responding to reported thefts from one of his properties in Portapique.
WORTMAN AS POLICE CONTACT
Gabriel Wortman had good manners and a pleasant demeanor and Wiley made a habit of stopping in to visit whenever he happened to be on patrol through the area.
“If people wondered, ‘Well why would you stop in and talk with him?’ Number one, he was somebody in the community that was a good guy. He seemed pro-police, to me,” Wiley told investigators.
“He was around my age; I’m 57 he was 51, and I found it interesting the projects he did and I – and I liked that he’d take me out and show me, ‘cause I thought, I’m not a skilled, I couldn’t do that, but I can appreciate what he’s doing.”
Wortman made a habit of seeking out friendships with police officers, including Halifax Regional Police Const. Barry Warnell whom he approached out of the blue while the latter was working a security gig.
Wiley said Wortman never showed interest in police paraphernalia or firearms during his estimated 16 visits to his Portapique residence.
THREATENED PARENTS
At about 2 a.m. on June 10, 2010 Sgt. Cordell Poirier was well into a 12-hour night shift at the Halifax Regional Police’s Dartmouth office when the call came in when a call taken by a commissionaire popped up on his computer screen.
It was from Const. Len Vickers with the Codiac RCMP in Moncton. Drunk and angry over the way a land deal had gone with his family, Gabriel Wortman had told his uncle that he would kill his parents in Moncton.
That uncle had called Gabriel’s father, Paul Wortman, who in turn called the RCMP.
It was a busy night for Poirier’s officers, so the patrol supervisor took the file himself. He called Const. Vickers back, learned Wortman was a “bad alcoholic” who apparently had several guns, and responded with several other units to his home and denture clinic at 193 Portland St. in Dartmouth.
It was about 3:30 a.m. when Lisa Banfield, Wortman’s girlfriend, met them at the door.
She informed the officers that Wortman was passed out drunk and in “no condition” to speak with them. She didn’t confirm or deny the threats but did say he was angry with his parents about a land deal.
Poirier left his card and said he would need to speak to Wortman face-to-face over the coming days.
Poirier showed up at the property on his next day shift, the business was closed and no one answered the door, but Wortman’s F-150 was in the parking lot.
As he left, his cell rang – it was Wortman claiming he was calling from Banfield’s cellphone in Portapique.
“When I told him we needed to talk face to face he became confrontational and he told me the only weapons that he had in the house was a pellet gun and two antique muskets, both non-functional,” recalled Poirier using his notes for assistance.
“And, as I said, he was getting confrontational and basically that conversation ended with him saying ‘Look, if you’re going to charge, charge me,’ and he hung up.”
Wortman didn’t have a gun licence and a call to the Firearms Registry police help line confirmed there were no weapons registered to him. Wortman’s uncle in Edmonton (Glynn Wortman), who had heard the threats to the parents, was refusing to return police phone calls.
Poirier then called Wortman’s father, Paul, in Moncton and told him that without confirmation from the uncle there was little they could do. In that conversation Paul said that his son had several “serious weapons” including at least one handgun and multiple long guns at his Portapique residence.
So Poirier called the Bible Hill RCMP and spoke to Const. Greg Wiley.
“He told me that he was a good friend of Gabriel, and he will attempt to find out if, in fact, he does have any weapons in possession at the cottage in Portapique,” recalled Poirier.
“I felt there was no grounds really at that time to follow up or lay a threat charge against Gabe Wortman in relation to that. So, I was hoping that with the information I’d given the RCMP, they would be able to find something out on their end.”
Poirier didn’t hear back from the Bible Hill RCMP.
‘WANTED TO KILL A COP’
In 2011 Const. Greg Densmore of the Truro Police Service was approached by an unnamed informant.
Densmore was told a man named Gabriel Wortman had multiple illegal weapons, including a handgun that he often carried with him in his car while driving between his homes in Portapique and Dartmouth, and that he “wanted to kill a cop.”
In the warning that Densmore drafted and sent via email to police agencies across the province, he also notes that Wortman was angry with police over how they handled the break-in at his property that Wiley would later tell investigators was wrapped up satisfactorily.
“Source advised that Mr. Wortman is under a lot of stress lately, and is starting to have some mental issues (‘is becoming a little squirrely’),” reads the warning.
“Source advised that they have seen the firearms and stated that Gabriel stores the handgun in nightstand beside his bed.”
Portapique is outside the Truro Police Service’s jurisdiction, so all they could do was pass this information on to the RCMP.
What the latter did with it remains unclear. But no investigation appears to have begun and no occurrence report can be found in the Police Reporting Occurrence System (PROS) – an RCMP database for recording incidents and related individuals that municipal departments in Nova Scotia also have the ability to access and add to.
In his interview, Wiley referenced “an email or something” about Wortman being dangerous. Wiley said he visited Wortman and “he was fine.”
When Densmore’s email showed up on Poirier’s computer at the Dartmouth detachment, he remembered the previous year’s threat complaint and called Wiley again to advise that “someone should talk to Wortman.”
Where the RCMP and Halifax Regional Police are separate forces, Poirier was not able to task Wiley with performing the check.
Having not heard back, Poirier called Wiley again on July 17, 2011, to get an update.
“In my notes here, I have it strange that well over a month after Wiley getting the information, he still hadn’t had time to talk to Wortman,” said Poirier.
He then called Densmore at the Truro Police Service to talk about the warning and its unidentified source. Poirier searched PROS for any additional incidents involving Wortman and then called Paul Wortman in Moncton for an update on the family situation. He heard that while it had been five years since Paul had seen his eldest son’s firearms, the father believed they were still there in Portapique.
So Poirier called Wiley’s acting supervisor at the Bible Hill RCMP detachment, to relay his concerns and question why the warnings hadn’t been followed up on. The acting supervisor reportedly promised to follow up with Wiley, see what action if any should be taken, and call Poirier back.
“I never got that update,” said Poirier.
MISSED RED FLAGS
“It would come as a bit of a shock to me here anyway if you came to me and told me that you reported something like that to two police officers and they didn’t go investigate,” Sgt. Colin Kuca told Brenda and George Forbes a month after the Portapique killings.
But that’s what appears to have happened.
Kuca was sent to interview the former Portapique residents for an internal RCMP investigation into potential missed red flags.
The Forbes told how they had sought to avoid Wortman after he showed them a pistol and other firearms in his garage, then asked whether they could get him ammunition.
Wortman’s partner, Lisa Banfield, also came to their house to hide on one occasion because he had been physically abusing her.
Then in 2013 Wortman’s uncle, Glynn, approached Brenda in the community.
“And he said, ‘Oh my God, like Gabriel just beat the crap out of Lisa. He was choking her.”
The assault happened outside and was witnessed by two other neighbours, one of whom tried to intervene but was allegedly told by Banfield “Stop, don’t, don’t come any closer ‘cause, you’re only gonna make it worse’.”
Brenda went to work and called the RCMP from her boss’s office.
She told the two RCMP officers who responded about the incident, the history of abuse and that Wortman had illegal guns.
When they asked if any of the witnesses would talk, she called Glynn and put him on speakerphone in their presence.
“And I said, Glynn, are you willing to talk to the RCMP about Lisa being beaten up and all the illegal weapons?’ (Glynn responded) ‘No way. There’s no way I’m gonna talk to the RCMP ‘cause Gabriel’s already told me that he’s killed people in the United States. He’ll kill me.’ … The RCMP heard all of that … and they actually said to me ‘um, well there’s not much we can do ‘cause we don’t have her side of the story. And it’s, like with the weapons and stuff, um, we have no proof.’”
No written or recorded statement was taken by the officers.
In 2014 the Forbes sold their house in Portapique and moved to the Halifax area, in part to get away from Gabriel Wortman.
A search of the PROS system by the RCMP as part of an internal investigation resulting from Brenda and George Forbes’ statements found that either the officers never made an entry about the report or it had been deleted.
“Notes obtained from Cst. Maxwell which only contained Brenda Forbes, Gabriel Wortman, Richard Ellison and Glynn Wortman’s names then ‘Lisa’ written on the side. No actions noted. These documents confirm the occurrence reported by Ms. Forbes existed but was likely purged according to national policy,” reads the investigation’s findings.
Brenda Forbes’ was the third person in three years to tell police that they had seen illegal guns on Gabriel Wortman’s property.
RCMP knew he threatened to kill his parents and had heard from his uncle that he claimed to have killed someone in the United States.
They were told there were witnesses in the community to a vicious physical assault he performed on his partner.
“If we receive this information and the gentleman resided in our area,” said Macneil
“You can’t leave that hanging there. You can’t leave that out there in the abyss. You have to document it and put an occurrence in and investigate it with an eye to determine is this credible or is it not. And if it’s credible, where are you going with it.”
Macneil told the Mass Casualty Commision that in a municipal police force officers aren’t transferred in and out, get to know their community and have a sense of ownership over it.
He told commissioners how as criticism mounted on the RCMP for not using the ALERT Ready system – that would have sent an alert to all cellphones in the province – as the killings were happening, pressure was placed on municipal chiefs by the RCMP to make public statements that were critical of the system.
“And basically, (RCMP Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman) was trying to paint the narrative that the Alert Ready system doesn’t work,” reads Macneil’s transcript.
“I said, no, by no means am I getting involved in this because this is a serious bone of contention with the community here in our area. And I believe it could have saved lives on the next day.”
When the federal and provincial governments initially announced a judicial review, held behind closed doors that would issue a report that may or may not be made public, Macneil said the municipal chiefs again came under pressure from both the RCMP and the provincial Department of Justice to support the move.
“A lot of people felt it was a cover up. And I was one of those people,” said Macneil.
“We want the truth to come out. And I want the truth to come out for the families and for the community. And I want the truth to come out so we as police can learn from this and improve from this.”
In response to public outrage the initial pledge of a judicial review was replaced with a full public inquiry.
“I don’t fault the officers that went there, they’re a victim of the system they work in,” said Macneil.