N.S. mass shooter had a history of intimidation, violent altercations

Warning: Particulars on this story are disturbing 

The person who killed 22 folks in Nova Scotia in April 2020 had a historical past of violence within the a long time earlier than his closing rampage, inflicting assaults and harassment on strangers, workers, and sufferers alike.

New paperwork launched by the Mass Casualty Fee main the general public inquiry inspecting the killings on April 18 and 19, 2020, present Gabriel Wortman had a sample of intimidating, beating, stalking and berating anybody who offended him.

In interviews with police after the shootings, dozens of individuals going way back to a girl he dated briefly after highschool in 1986 describe him in phrases together with “creepy,” “violent,” “deranged,” and “obsessive.” 

Ladies who labored for him, or have been sufferers at his denture clinic, repeatedly informed investigators he made them uncomfortable, and males cited his harmful mood and excessive rage as intimidating sufficient to forestall them reporting bodily violence.

Denture sufferers have been assaulted, abused

“He f–king scared the hell out of me,” one former affected person informed police.

The person, recognized solely as BK, lived close to the gunman’s denture clinic in Dartmouth and bumped into him often when placing rubbish of their shared dumpster. Wortman supplied to repair the person’s “scraggly” tooth and agreed to a month-to-month fee plan.

However when BK could not make his $50 fee in December 1999, Wortman confronted him on the dumpster, tackled him to the bottom, tore the dentures out of his mouth and shoved a handful of snow into his mouth. 

“He goes, ‘Merry Christmas to you.’ And he walked away,” BK recalled.

BK did not return to reclaim his dentures and went out of his method to make sure he did not cross paths with Wortman once more. He moved out of the realm inside a month.

Former workers informed police it wasn’t an remoted incident. 

Renée Karsten, a denturist who labored with Wortman at his Dartmouth clinic from about 2001 to 2007, stated he would “snap” each on occasion. She described twice seeing him break sufferers’ dentures in half or smash them on the ground as a result of the sufferers complained concerning the match. 

Karsten additionally informed police concerning the day Wortman stormed out of the clinic — leaving a affected person within the chair  — to beat a person who had been sitting on the windowsill of his constructing, having a smoke. 

“[He] simply misplaced it and simply grabbed him,” Karsten informed RCMP. “Simply grabbed him off the windowsill and pulled him away from the window and simply beat the shit out of him.”

Karsten stated she tried to intervene, however Wortman yelled at her to return inside. She stated he quickly got here again in, washed his arms and returned to the affected person within the chair.

Denture board discovered sample of inappropriate conduct

Wortman’s interactions with sufferers have been the topic of an investigation by the Denturist Licensing Board of Nova Scotia. The board acquired not less than eight complaints about Wortman between 1998 and 2020. Three of these, filed in 2004, have been by girls who described abusive behaviour by Wortman and in a single case, sexually express feedback throughout remedy. 

Board registrar Maureen Hope informed board chair Robert MacKean in September 2004 that when sufferers tried to resolve the problem of ill-fitting dentures, Wortman “goes on the defensive and scenario goes from unhealthy to worse … from what I’ve been informed by the sufferers, at this level he’s actually bordering skilled misconduct.”

Wortman wrote to Hope in October 2004 in response to the complaints, saying the ladies have been “fuelled by bitterness,” or out for vengeance.

Nevertheless, the board launched an investigation into the three complaints and a fourth filed in February 2005. 

Gunman referred to as investigation ‘witch hunt’

At one level throughout that investigation, Wortman contacted a consulting denturist employed by the board, asking him to vary his findings on the standard of Wortman’s work. After the investigation, he contacted an investigator at her office to inform her that the entire thing was a “witch hunt.”

In February 2007, Wortman signed a settlement settlement as a way to keep away from a proper listening to, accepting allegations {of professional} misconduct and one in all interfering with the board’s investigation. 

He was suspended for a month and ordered to endure counselling. Though he accomplished some counselling, the inquiry paperwork word he continued to “deny accountability or wrongdoing when responding to subsequent affected person complaints.”

The paperwork present that Wortman wrote to the board to defend himself not less than three extra occasions in opposition to complaints in 2011, 2016 and 2019, every time saying the sufferers have been both out to get him or had psychological well being points.

There was no point out of another investigations or sanctions from the board in opposition to Wortman associated to complaints after 2007.

Repeated sexual harassment of a number of girls

Though Wortman denied making sexual feedback to the affected person who filed the criticism in 2004, a number of girls described sexual harassment and aggressive advances. 

A girl recognized solely as BB within the inquiry paperwork stated she labored as a receptionist in Wortman’s clinics quickly after she completed highschool, however stop after lower than six months as a result of he repeatedly uncovered his penis to her and demanded sexual favours. 

One other girl, recognized as SS, utilized for a job on the Dartmouth clinic. After an preliminary interview in 2004, Wortman invited her for a second — at his cottage in Portapique. 

She went, solely to have Wortman stress her to have drinks and keep the evening in his bed room. She refused, however went on to work at his RisePEI clinic. She stated they have been strolling by means of a hospital in the future to see a affected person when he broke the silence by making a sexual remark to her “out of the blue.”

“I believe that in his head, he thought that he was God’s reward to girls and that each one girls ought to love him,” SS informed RCMP. 

A dental gross sales consultant who visited Wortman’s clinic in 1999 stated he invited her to a gathering at his cottage in Lawrencetown. The girl, recognized as OO, arrived to seek out Wortman and one other girl — his girlfriend on the time, who he instantly broke up with in entrance of OO.

When that girl left, OO informed police the gunman turned “aggressive,” and informed OO he “needed to idiot round.” She left and Wortman pursued her in his Jeep.

“I sped up and he was dashing up. And he tried to take me off the street. And I used to be like, what the hell is unsuitable with you?” she stated

OO informed police he solely stopped when somebody yelled at him from the road, and referred to as her “constantly” afterward to apologize.

Others stated they needed to report the gunman’s pretend police automobile and odd behaviour — however felt too intimidated to take that step.

Incident at gunman’s storage

The summer time earlier than the mass taking pictures, a gaggle partied on the gunman’s storage, together with a neighbour in Portapique referred to as EE within the transcripts; her daughter, who’s dubbed DD; and her good friend, II. 

Each youthful girls later informed police the gunman’s totally marked RCMP automobile and uniforms scared them, and had them satisfied he was both an officer or hosted events with “soiled cops.” 

The gunman additionally brushed in opposition to II all evening, she stated, and at one level he grabbed her breast.

Businesspeople who interacted with Wortman stated he was confrontational, condescending and would get unreasonably agitated over minor infractions. 

Allison MacDonald, a consultant for Yellow Pages, stated Wortman locked her out of his workplace in November 2019 when she arrived to a gathering two minutes late. Throughout a followup assembly, she described him as “contentious,” and stated he paced across the workplace “huffing and puffing,” and interrupted her to rely down the time earlier than his subsequent assembly.

MacDonald stated a male colleague who renewed Wortman’s account in 2020 described him as “good as pie.”

In March 2020, Wortman contacted native CIBC officers about withdrawing massive quantities of money from his accounts, citing fears that the banks would shut amid the pandemic. As financial institution officers tried to comply with the protocols required for such a big withdrawal — $475,000 in whole — Wortman grew more and more agitated and irate. 

After a neighborhood department supervisor filed an inner criticism about Wortman, CIBC’s market vice-president for Nova Scotia and P.E.I. informed police that he had a half-hour dialog with Wortman. Dean Branton described the gunman as “fairly upset” and “cursing quite a bit.”

“He needed his cash come hell or excessive water,” Branton informed RCMP. “I stated OK … then we have now to do it in a way that retains you secure. Proper? And so then that is when he stated, he stated, ‘Effectively you let me fear about my f–king security, buddy.'”

Wortman was recognized to regulation enforcement

RisePEI Regional Police had dozens of pages of data on Wortman owing to the quite a few altercations and assaults he was concerned in through the years. 

One incident that did lead to prices was Wortman’s assault of a 15-year-old boy on the Tim Hortons close to his Dartmouth clinic. Police data point out Wortman confronted the teenager in October 2001 — although it isn’t clear why — and a verbal disagreement escalated. The gunman punched the teenager within the head and kicked him within the ribs.

The police file notes that Wortman claimed he was performing in self-defence after the teenager spit on him. Wortman pleaded responsible to assault in 2002 and acquired a conditional discharge with probation. He was banned from possessing firearms all through his probation and ordered to attend anger administration and counselling. 

This incident, and different RisePEI Regional Police incidents the place the gunman was accused of assault or uttering threats, weren’t instantly accessible to RCMP within the early hours of the mass taking pictures as a result of the 2 police forces used completely different databases.

The lone exception was simply earlier than 1 a.m. AT on April 19, 2020, when a RisePEI officer forwarded a file to RCMP on a February 2020 incident the place the gunman was upset RisePEI law enforcement officials had parked in his clinic lot, and locked the cruiser in.

Greater than eight hours after the rampage started, a RisePEI officer emailed a report of the remainder of the incidents to RCMP, however later recalled to the commission there “wasn’t something main.”

Witnesses who spoke to RCMP after the shootings detailed quite a few different fights that weren’t ever reported to police. 

One man who did residence renovations on Wortman’s cottage in Portapique as an adolescent in 2005 informed police that Wortman was exceedingly meticulous and would flip violent when issues weren’t carried out to his requirements.

“I do not get intimidated by very many individuals and that is one of many guys that got here throughout to me, like, I received to watch out with him,” stated Joe Cartwright in his interview with RCMP after the shootings. “I made certain that [my boss] by no means ever left me alone, trigger he was a f–kin’, he was a scary man.”

Cartwright described seeing Wortman assault a employee who walked on his grass. Wortman “laid the man out in a single hit,” and knocked the employee down once more when he tried to struggle again. As different staff went about their enterprise, Cartwright stated the person lastly received up and left.

The inquiry will hear from the gunman’s former neighbour, Brenda Forbes, this week. Wortman stalked Forbes after she reported him to the RCMP for abusing his common-law partner, Lisa Banfield.

Banfield can also be anticipated to testify earlier than the inquiry on Friday.