---------- Original message ----------
From: Justice Minister <JUSTMIN@novascotia.ca>
Date: Mon, 2 May 2022 23:46:46 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: RE The Nova Scotia mass shootings Seems that
I must ask the CBC and their buddies the RCMP and FBI if the name Col.
Joe Dotson Beasley The Third rings any bells EH Higgy???
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Thank you for your email to the Minister of Justice. Please be assured
that it has been received by the Department. Your email will be
reviewed and addressed accordingly. Thank you.
---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Mon, 2 May 2022 20:44:36 -0300
Subject: RE The Nova Scotia mass shootings Seems that I must ask the
CBC and their buddies the RCMP and FBI if the name Col. Joe Dotson
Beasley The Third rings any bells EH Higgy???
To: "elizabeth.mcmillan" <elizabeth.mcmillan@cbc.ca>, "Brenda.Lucki"
<Brenda.Lucki@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, washington field
<washington.field@ic.fbi.gov>, "hugh.flemming" <hugh.flemming@gnb.ca>,
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<Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca>, jpink@pinklarkin.com, andrew
<andrew@frankmagazine.ca>, andrewjdouglas <andrewjdouglas@gmail.com>,
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<steve.murphy@ctv.ca>, pm <pm@pm.gc.ca>, PREMIER <PREMIER@gov.ns.ca>,
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Dwayne.King@
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<tim@halifaxexaminer.ca>, zane@halifaxexaminer.ca
https://davidraymondamos3.
Monday 2 May 2022
Nova Scotia gunman was on police radar long before mass shooting, RCMP confirm
The Current with Matt Galloway
This is Google's cache of https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-nova-scotia-gunman-was-on-police-radar-long-before-mass-shooting-rcmp/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 27 Apr 2022 08:54:29 GMT.
Nova Scotia gunman was on police radar long before mass shooting, RCMP confirm
Greg MercerAtlantic Canada Reporter
Halifax
Published June 4, 2020
This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.
A Nova Scotia flag and single candle hangs on a pole on Highway 2 near Portapique, N.S. on Friday, April 24, 2020 in memory of those killed. The RCMP have been criticized over how they responded to the shooting and for not warning residents about the gunman through the province’s public alert system.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and
Nova Scotia RCMP say they are re-examining a 2013 domestic abuse and weapons complaint against the gunman behind Canada’s worst mass shooting, trying to better understand what, if any, action was taken at the time.
They are also reviewing a policy under which some RCMP records are purged after two years, in light of a now-deleted 2011 police safety bulletin that warned Gabriel Wortman had a stash of weapons and had said he wanted to kill a police officer.
That safety bulletin was erased from the RCMP’s database in 2013 – part of an information management policy that police acknowledge likely needs to change.
“We need to retain that information, and know about it for circumstances such as this,” Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, criminal operations officer for the Nova Scotia RCMP, said during an update on the investigation.
N.S. family urges federal, provincial governments to end ‘back and forth’ over public inquiry into mass shooting
Police told in 2011 that Nova Scotia gunman wanted to ‘kill a cop,’ document says
The 2011 safety bulletin and 2013 complaint, which came to light in news reports, show the gunman was on the police radar long before he killed 22 people in rural Nova Scotia in April, an attack police say started with an assault on the woman he lived with.
The RCMP have been criticized over how they responded to the shooting and for not warning residents about the gunman through the province’s public alert system. Now, they’re also facing questions about why the earlier complaints against the 51-year-old denturist did not result in charges.
RCMP brass say they’ve identified two officers who handled the 2013 domestic abuse complaint, made by a neighbour in Portapique, N.S., where the gunman had a cottage. The complainant was concerned about the gunman’s collection of illegal weapons and assaults on his partner – including an incident where he was seen choking her on the ground during a bonfire.
“We’re working through what records, notes and recollections they have from that incident,” said Superintendent Darren Campbell, the officer in charge of support services for Nova Scotia RCMP.
The RCMP initially said it had no record of that 2013 complaint.
Linda MacDonald, a co-founder of Persons Against Non-State Torture, an anti-domestic violence organization, said cases where complaints seem to go nowhere can dissuade people from reporting incidents. That’s a major problem, because chronic spousal abuse and misogyny are often linked to larger violent acts, she said.
“We’re very concerned that police don’t take these complaints very seriously,” said Ms. MacDonald, a nurse based in Truro, N.S. “There’s such a close connection between mass violence and spousal assault, but police are ignoring it in this case.”
Supt. Campbell said complaints to police are taken seriously and followed up.
“I need the public to understand, when you call us, we believe you,” he said.
The 2011 safety bulletin was triggered by an anonymous tip to the Truro Police Service from someone concerned about Mr. Wortman’s state of mind, and his anger over a complaint about a break-and-enter at the cottage he felt wasn’t properly investigated. The gunman’s main residence was in Dartmouth, so Halifax Regional Police investigated the tip, and then closed the file, the RCMP said.
An RCMP officer visited the cottage in Portapique several times, but didn’t witness anything that would justify further investigation or enough evidence of a danger to the public to produce a search warrant, Supt. Campbell said.
“He didn’t see anything that caused him any concern or allow him to take further action,” he said.
Chief Supt. Leather also suggested other reports, including complaints and disputes with neighbours in the Portapique area from the early 2000s may have also been purged from police records.
Still, had police known about the 2011 safety bulletin when they responded to 911 calls in April, they would not have responded any differently, he said. The RCMP say the weapons used in the attack were obtained long after that warning was issued.
“While a bulletin existed in 2011, it likely would not have changed our response on April 18 and 19,” he said.
Supt. Campbell also revealed some details about an assessment done by a forensic psychologist, which described the gunman as an “injustice collector.”
Police use the term to describe someone who “may have felt slighted or cheated or disrespected at any point in time in their lives. It may be real, it may be perceived by the individual, however, as a result, these injustices were held onto,” he said.
Supt. Campbell said at the briefing that a behavioural analysis of the gunman has found some of his victims were targeted for perceived past injustices, while others were selected at random.
The RCMP’s top brass also said they didn’t order an evacuation of Portapique during the mass shooting because they initially believed the gunman was in the area “lying in wait" – and sending people out of their homes might put them in danger.
They now know he slipped away just minutes after RCMP arrived, driving a look-alike police vehicle and wearing an officer’s uniform.
The RCMP don’t yet know how he obtained the uniform. He was never an auxiliary member of the RCMP or a volunteer, Chief Supt. Leather confirmed. He also did not get help from two retired RCMP officers in his family, or a friend in another police force, to obtain any of his uniforms or vests, they said.
Nova Scotia’s Justice Minister says there will be a joint federal-provincial inquiry or review into the mass killing, but the exact form is still taking shape. The RCMP are working on a national policy for public alerts.
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Follow Greg Mercer on Twitter: @GregMercerGlobe
Neighbour who warned RCMP about N.S. shooter's domestic violence says she was 'scared to death' of him
Brenda Forbes says she sold her home and left town to get away from Gabriel Wortman
Update: After this story was published, RCMP told the Globe and Mail it it has identified the two police officers who responded to a 2013 weapons and domestic abuse complaint against Gabriel Wartman and are reviewing how it was handled. Police initially told CBC it had no record of any such complaint. They are also reviewing a policy under which some RCMP records are deleted after two years.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of domestic violence.
Brenda Forbes says she was so afraid of her neighbour Gabriel Wortman that she sold her Portapique, N.S., home and left town.
Six years later, she says Wortman burned that house to the ground and killed everyone inside.
Wortman killed 22 people across various Nova Scotia communities last month and burned a number of homes before police shot and killed him outside a gas station in Enfield. He is believed to have perpetrated the worst mass killing in Canadian history.
But years before that, in 2013, Forbes says she warned the RCMP that Wortman was a dangerous man who beat his girlfriend and kept a cache of weapons in his home. That's the same girlfriend who police say Wortman beat and bound at the start of his murderous rampage. She escaped and hid in the woods.
The Nova Scotia RCMP say they have no record of Forbes' complaint and their investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
"We are looking into the gunman's previous relationships and interactions," Cst. Hans Ouellette said in an email.
Forbes, who first told her story to the Halifax Examiner and The Canadian Press, spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off. Here is part of their conversation.
Brenda, how would you describe your former neighbour, Gabriel Wortman?
One word. Psychopath.
Is that how you would have described him before you knew what he did?
Oh yeah. Both me and my husband knew what he was like. And I let other people in the community know the same thing and what he had been doing with [his partner]. A lot of them just said to me, "Oh no, he's not like that."
How did he treat her?
Like his possession.
He drank quite a bit, and when he drank, he got violent. And he had her totally under his control.
You witnessed that he was physically abusing her as well. What can you tell us about that?
The first time … she ran over to my house, actually, and she said that he'd been beating her and he had blocked her car in so she couldn't get away.
I said, "You need to get help."
And she said, "No, I can't, because he will hurt me again."
There was a second time, another incident, I understand, where you wanted to get the RCMP involved. Can you tell us about that?
He got into drinking. She was there. And there were three other people that were there, three other guys.
One of the guys told me he had her on the ground, was strangling her and screaming at her. And she actually said, "Don't get involved or you're only going to make it worse.".
One of the guys told me what happened. So I said, "That's it. It's done."
I went into work and I called the RCMP and they came down to see me.
I told them what the one fella had told me had happened. And I also said that he has a bunch of illegal weapons as well.
And he said, "Can you get one of these guys to confirm what you just said?"
I said, "I will try. I will call one of them," which I did.
And I said [to the witness], "Would you be willing to talk to the RCMP?" And the answer I got back was, "No way. ... He'll kill me."
The faces of some of the victims killed by a gunman in Nova Scotia. (CBC)
You and your husband said that you knew that he had these illegal firearms. How did you know?
We're military, or we were. We're both retired now. And he'd had us at his house when he first moved there, and he showed them to us.
And we knew right away that there is no way that he would have got them here in Canada, number one, and he didn't have an FAC [Firearms Acquisition Certificate].
And he actually asked us, because we were military, if we could get him a weapon or ammunition.
My husband's like, "What? No way. That's against the law."
Did you ever tell the RCMP that you saw those firearms?
When I had that interview with them, I told them then.
They said ... we had to have, like, pictures or proof that he actually had these weapons. We didn't have that.
So there was nothing, basically nothing, at that time that they could do.
I understand that you came to be personally afraid of him. From time to time you had seen other women at his place when his partner wasn't there. And you came to tell one of your neighbours about that.
He dragged her over to my house, pounded on the door. My husband answered the door and [Wortman] ... started screaming.
I came downstairs, and he was screaming at me.
And I said, "If the shoe fits, wear it." I said, "I've seen countless women at your place."
And he grabbed her, hauled her out the door, and he said, "You're going to pay for this" to me.
Well, after that, she was no longer allowed to talk to me, come anywhere near me, nothing.
My husband ended up going to Africa for the military, and I was basically by myself. I would go to work and come back. And as soon as I got home, he'd show up in his vehicle, park it right outside my house, get out, stand and stare at the house for a good half-hour. And he did that for a few days.
And I went, this is crazy. I'm scared to death now.
I could no longer live like that. My husband came home from Africa and I let him know what had been going on.
[Wortman] showed up again, and [my husband] is like,"Yeah, we're more moving."
So we put the house up for sale and it took over a year to sell it. We took a huge loss in it, because I just wanted to get out of there.
The one thing that I have regret about was the people that bought the house. I should have let them know what he was like, because they ended up getting killed too.
- Brenda Forbes, former neighbour of the Nova Scotia shooter
So the people who bought your house were killed?
Yeah, and he burned the house down.
When you learned that, what effect did it have on you?
I'm going to say that he burned that house down not because the people that were living there, but because of me.
It just rocked my world. And for somebody with PTSD [from the military], it's a little bit harder.
Brenda, I'm so sorry. That's just simply awful. But you can't feel you're responsible for that in any way.
It's hard not to.
But you're not. And you did everything you could. And when he was menacing you at your door when you were alone in the house, did you report him?
No, because the thing with being in the military, the words were, "Suck it up, princess." Right? You're tough. You're a soldier. Just soldier on.
So, no. Ugh. This is hard.
I can hear that it's very, very painful to talk about this, especially the fear that you had as well. On the night of April 18th, [when] you heard the story of this shooting ... in your neighborhood, did you immediately think of your neighbour?
Oh, I knew it was him. And the first person I thought of was her.
Right away, I called the RCMP and let them know everything.
And they've interviewed you since?
I've had probably, I don't know, four or five interviews.
A Wentworth volunteer firefighter douses hotspots near destroyed vehicles linked to the killings. (Tim Krochak/Getty Images)
Have you been able to speak with [Wortman's former partner] since?
I haven't spoken with her. No.
Would you like to?
Yes, I would. But I don't think she really wants to talk to anybody right now.
What would you say to her if you could?
How much I feel for her. How much I know that she had to go through. Everything. I'm just glad she's OK.
Do you know if she has friends, if anyone is helping her, if she has a circle of any kind?
When she was with him, she really wasn't allowed to have friends. But she does have a good family.
When you reflect on this and what you knew over the years that you were observing this, are your thoughts that this possibly could have been prevented?
Yes.
The laws have to change. If somebody gets, whether it be male or female, if they get assaulted, if they're abused or whatever and somebody reports it for them because they're too afraid to, it should be looked at right away.
And if you report anybody that has what you know are illegal weapons, whether you have pictures or what of it, if somebody reports that, it should be investigated, like, yesterday.
Is that why you came forward to tell your story? You want to get that message out?
No.
When I first saw the stuff happening on the news and I saw neighbours and stuff saying, "Oh, he was such a nice guy," I went ballistic.
So you wanted people to know what he was about.
When I was still living there and I let people around me that were living there know what he had done and what he was like, they were saying, "Oh no, he's not like that."
Well, now I'm getting bunches of e-mails from people that were there that I told about what he was doing and stuff. And they're all apologizing to me.
That doesn't work for me. You didn't believe me in the beginning. I'm not a crazy lady. What I said was true. And it just irritates me now that, oh, you finally realize it after everybody's dead.
Sorry, I'm getting a little upset here.
Brenda, you are entitled to be upset. And I just want to make sure that you're OK, that when we let you go, you've got someone to talk to or to be there with you.
Yes, I have a service dog and my husband.
OK, Brenda. You've been very generous and I know we walked you through a lot of really painful stuff. But I think people appreciate knowing what you've been able to tell them. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Written
by Sheena Goodyear with files from The Canadian Press. Interview
produced by Kate Swoger and Jeanne Armstrong. Q&A has been edited
for length and clarity.
How the Nova Scotia mass shooter smuggled guns into Canada
Multiple people knew where the gunman stowed guns in the back of his pickup truck
A transcript of the May 2020 RCMP interview with Sean Conlogue — a resident of Houlton, Maine who knew Gabriel Wortman for more than two decades — has been posted online by the public inquiry examining the April 2020 mass shooting.
A CBC News investigation found that though Conlogue and at least one other person in Maine may have broken U.S. federal laws by helping the shooter obtain two of the guns he used during the April 2020 rampage, it is unlikely they will face charges.
It is illegal for an American to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport or deliver a firearm to someone they know is not a U.S. resident. Investigators believe the shooter, who didn't have a firearms licence, obtained three of the guns he used during the massacre in Houlton and smuggled them into Canada.
Police traced two of his weapons back to Conlogue, who told investigators he had no idea what his friend was planning. In a four-hour interview, RCMP Staff Sgt. Greg Vardy asked him about their relationship, guns and border crossings.
The gunman frequently stayed at Conlogue's home and had online orders shipped to his address. Conlogue said he'd given Wortman a Ruger handgun as a "token of appreciation" for the work he did around his property during his visits.
The
gunman frequently stayed at his friend Sean Conlogue's home in Houlton,
Maine. He had parcels, including pieces of the replica cruiser he
built, shipped there and would drive them back over the border. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)
In response, Vardy told Conlogue it was illegal for him to do so.
"I'm not interested in charging you…. I want to know, like, the truth," the Mountie said.
"We don't have any inkling of coming down here, coming after Sean Conlogue for this event. This is about knowing what's happened for those 22 families, so that in the future this stuff is not gonna happen again. In the future, that these guns will never get across that border."
Frequent border crossings
Search warrant documents show the Canada Border Services Agency determined the gunman crossed the border at Woodstock, N.B., a short drive from Houlton, 15 times in the two years prior to the shootings.
That included in April 2019 when the shooter stayed with Conlogue for a week to help him after a foot surgery. During that visit, police believe Wortman purchased a high-powered rifle — a Colt Law Enforcement-brand carbine 5.56-mm semi-automatic — after attending a local gun show.
After
police shot and killed the gunman at a gas station in Enfield, N.S.,
they found five firearms in his possession, three handguns and two
rifles. He obtained three of them in Houlton, Maine. (Mass Casualty Commission)
Conlogue said he was in bed recovering and didn't go to the show, but assumed Wortman went with a mutual friend. Vardy named the man but the public inquiry has not released any documents related to interviews with him.
He told Vardy he saw the shooter counting cash and remembers seeing a rifle the day before the gunman left to return home to Nova Scotia.
"I said, 'what in the hell do you need something like that for?' And I think his words were 'I've always wanted one,'" according to the transcript of his RCMP statement.
Getting the guns across the border
Conlogue also told RCMP that he believed Wortman took the rifle back into Canada by wrapping it up in the aluminum tonneau cover of his truck.
"The day they left…. He was working on his roll-up top," Conlogue said, adding that he "didn't want to rock the boat" and never asked about the gun or the border crossing specifically.
Others, including Conlogue's friend, Scott Shaffer, and the gunman's partner, Lisa Banfield, also told investigators they believed the guns were smuggled that way.
A
photo of the gunman's multiple cars, including the Ford F-150 pickup
truck, rear right, witnesses say he often used on trips across the Maine
border. (Mass Casualty Commission)
Banfield said she asked her spouse about it and he explained he'd leave the cover rolled up and the back of the F-150 pickup open.
"So if they're looking for something, they're looking inside, they'd have no reason to open the tonneau cover," Banfield told RCMP on April 28, 2020, adding he denied ever taking guns across the border while she was with him.
Conlogue was also aware that Wortman had taken guns across the border before.
After the death of their mutual friend, Fredericton lawyer Tom Evans, Conlogue said Wortman wrapped Evans's Ruger Mini in a blanket and brought it to Maine. That rifle was another gun police found at the end of the 13-hour rampage.
Police
traced a Ruger P89 9-mm semi-automatic handgun back to Houlton, Maine,
and Conlogue told them he'd given it to the shooter as a gift. He said
his friend took a Glock 23 .40 calibre semi-automatic pistol from his
home. Police found the pistol in the stolen car the gunman was driving
when he was killed. (CBC News/Illustration)
While speaking with Vardy initially, Conlogue was vague about two Glock handguns that went missing from his home, before explaining that Wortman called him in the fall of 2017 to say he took them. Conlogue said his friend had permission to use the handguns, but the agreement was they were supposed to stay in his Houlton home.
"I didn't know until he had told me that he took those guns across the border and I [pretty] near had a heart attack," Conlogue said in the RCMP interview.
"It broke my heart because he betrayed trust that I'd had in him… I probably at that time I should have said something."
Information crucial for border security
Ronald Vitiello, the former head of the U.S. border patrol, said having someone close to the gunman report his activities could have impacted how agents interacted with the gunman during his many border crossings.
He said people who know an offender are the best source of up-to-date intelligence.
"If somebody that had suspicion about his illegal activity went to the RCMP or went to local authorities or went to the border authorities and said, 'Hey, look, we think this individual is doing X, Y and Z'… that might have been enough to scrutinize his travel back and forth a bit more," he told CBC News.
"It highlights the need for individuals to report suspicious activity. It highlights the need for both countries to co-operate on the security regime to protect both the border community and the homeland at large, right? Both Canada and the U.S."
The tonneau cover in the back of a vehicle would be a common place to search if the shooter was flagged as a potential threat, he said.
According
to search warrant documents, the gunman made the approximately
five-hour drive to Maine 15 times over two years prior to the shootings,
the Canada Border Services Agency determined. (CBC News/Illustration)
The Canada Border Services Agency told CBC it uses "data, intelligence and risk indicators to identify illicit firearms."
"Guided by intelligence" border agents use tools that include X-ray machines, including hand-held ones, and detector dogs, the government agency said in a statement to CBC News.
"Their specialized training, expertise and knowledge, in detecting contraband and prohibited or restricted goods, allows them to always be on the lookout for dangerous goods," it said.
But witnesses who spoke to police, including Banfield, said Wortman was rarely searched. He had a NEXUS card, which meant both the U.S. and Canada considered him a low-risk traveller.
NEXUS card for low-risk travellers
Anyone can apply for NEXUS. The program was designed to speed up border crossings.
Applicants must go through an interview process and pass the risk assessments of U.S. Customs and Border and CBSA background checks.
Criminal convictions will show on those checks and new convictions will result in someone's membership being cancelled, Rebecca Purdy, a senior spokesperson for the CBSA, said in an emailed statement.
Wortman didn't have a criminal record, though he received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to a 2001 assault. Meeting conditions set by the court, which included nine months of probation and a $50 fine, meant the case could be resolved without a conviction on his record.
Once approved, NEXUS members crossing land borders show their card at a reader. They then pass a border officer who decides if they are required to enter an inspection area, the CBSA told CBC.
Members may still be subject to in-depth searches because anyone crossing the border can be referred for a secondary search, the agency's statement said. Referrals happen as the result of factors such as document validation, declaring goods and the payment of duties and taxes.
It said everyone is required to report controlled or restricted items like firearms and people importing goods aren't supposed to use the NEXUS lane either.
CBSA has tip line
Vitiello said the authorities need people to flag illegal activity for the system to work well.
"Having a regime that allows for low-risk travellers and people to come in and out of both countries conveniently and friction-free is a good thing, right? It helps drive both economies," said Vitiello.
"It highlights the need for the co-operation among border authorities – co-operation with regard to intelligence and threats to criminal or in the terrorism regime. "
CBSA said people can always report concerns to CBSA Border Watch by calling a tip line or submitting information online.
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the agency seized 955 guns at border crossings, including non-restricted, restricted and prohibited firearms. That was up from 548 during 2020-2021 when travel was limited due to the pandemic. In 2019-2020, the agency seized 753.
Gunman linked to firearms before 2020
The 2020 attacks weren't the first suggestion that the gunman, who never had a licence to possess or use firearms, had them anyway.
CBC previously obtained records through freedom of information that show in 2011, a Truro police officer circulated a tip to other policing agencies that a source reported seeing firearms at the gunman's Portapique, N.S., cottage and that he kept a handgun in his night stand and a long gun in a compartment by a fireplace.
That same report also referenced a 2010 investigation into threats against the gunman's parents and information on file about him having "several long rifles." The RCMP said in June 2020 that they were looking into past interactions that officers had with the shooter.
In 2013, Brenda Forbes, who used to live in Portapique, told police she reported to RCMP that her neighbour was abusive toward his partner and had illegal weapons.
Boasted of history of smuggling
Guns also weren't the only thing people thought the gunman took over the border illegally.
David McGrath, the partner of one of Lisa Banfield's sisters, told RCMP the shooter had boasted about smuggling things in university.
"He used to run tobacco over the border when he was like, I don't know, 20 years old. He was good at it," he said. "He's been shady his entire [life] as far as I'm concerned."
Search
warrant documents outline how the shooter used a Colt Law
Enforcement-brand carbine 5.56-mm semi-automatic rifle and that the gun
came from Maine in 2019. He had adapted it with three overcapacity
magazines, which each held 30 additional rounds. (CBC News/Illustration )
Shaffer also told police the gunman would also pour vodka in jerry cans to make it look like he was taking gas across the border to save money since alcohol was cheaper in Maine.
Conlogue said his friend was known to put liquor in beer bottles. He didn't know his guns were used in the mass shooting until Vardy told him.
"That man was in my house, that man was a monster and I didn't see it, neither did anybody else," Conlogue said.
"Honest to God it's eating me alive…. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I've lost 25 pounds… evil… that's what it was."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mass-shooting-guns-houlton-maine-1.6433463
How the N.S. gunman got his weapons and who may have helped him in Maine
U.S. residents may have committed crimes, but it appears no one has been charged
N.S. gunman may have obtained weapons from U.S. residents
At least two people in Maine may have broken U.S. federal laws by helping a Nova Scotia man obtain two of the guns he used during the April 2020 rampage that left 22 people dead, a CBC News investigation has found — though it appears unlikely they will face charges.
After police shot and killed the gunman at a gas station in Enfield, N.S., they found five firearms in his possession. Investigators traced three of the weapons back to Houlton, Maine, a small town less than seven kilometres from the New Brunswick border that the shooter visited frequently.
Court records and documents released by the public inquiry examining the tragedy outline how investigators believe Gabriel Wortman got them. They suggest a longtime friend in Houlton gifted him one handgun and he took another from that man's home. He also arranged to purchase a high-powered rifle for cash after attending a gun show in the town.
The shooter, who didn't have a firearms licence, smuggled the guns into Canada. Based on American law, he should never have been able to obtain them in the first place.
Fewer
than 6,000 people live in Houlton, Maine, where Nova Scotia's mass
shooter obtained three of his guns. The gunman crossed the nearby border
15 times in two years prior to the shootings, including a week in April
2019 that coincided with a gun show in the town. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)
In the U.S., it is illegal for an American to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport or deliver a firearm to someone they know is not a U.S. resident, which includes Canadian tourists. Anyone found in violation may face fines or up to 10 years in prison, depending on the details of the offence.
Violations don't always end up in court
It appears no one in the U.S. has ever been charged with providing guns used by the shooter.
A retired U.S. federal prosecutor said that's not entirely surprising. Margaret Groban said firearms offences rarely end up in U.S. courts unless the accused is considered a risk to the community.
After
police shot and killed the gunman at a gas station in Enfield, N.S.,
they found five firearms in his possession: three handguns and two
rifles. He obtained three of them in Houlton, Maine. (Mass Casualty Commission)
"Even though it is technically a violent crime and people say, 'Why don't you prosecute the crimes on the books?', there aren't resources available to do that and it may not even be appropriate to do it," said Groban, who worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and now teaches a course in firearms law at the University of Maine.
"There could be a number of relevant facts that might enter into whether or not public safety would be served since the perpetrator of this awful rampage is deceased."
She added that the priority is on stopping people "actively engaged in violent crime and using firearms to commit those crimes."
Technical violations fall much further down the list.
No announced charges in U.S.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Exposives (ATF) does not have an active investigation underway, according to spokesperson Erik Longnecker. He said he was not aware of any charges related to the Nova Scotia mass shooting being referred at the local, state or federal level. CBC News could find no record of charges filed in court.
The FBI steered questions about the case to Canadian law enforcement, and said it couldn't confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Meanwhile, the RCMP bounced questions back to the Americans.
The Mounties said they have been working with their "international counterparts," and "any decisions to lay charges on offences committed outside of Canada, would be considered by the relevant law enforcement agency."
Early on, the RCMP said tracking the guns and figuring out whether anyone helped the gunman in the lead-up to the killings was a critical part of their investigation.
Only three people on the Canadian side of the border have faced any criminal charges: the gunman's spouse, the spouse's brother and her brother-in-law were charged with giving Wortman ammunition.
Since then, two of the cases were referred to restorative justice, while a guilty plea was entered on the third.
How he got the guns
Summaries of police statements released through a court challenge launched by CBC News and other media outlets shed some light on the investigation.
They show that, in the days and weeks after the killings, an FBI agent conducted interviews in Houlton, as did the RCMP and ATF.
One of the people they spoke with was Sean Conlogue, a longtime friend of the gunman who often hosted him and his partner, Lisa Banfield, in Houlton.
The
gunman frequently stayed at his friend Sean Conlogue's home in Houlton,
Maine. He had parcels, including pieces for the replica cruiser he
built, shipped there and would drive them back over the border. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)
Conlogue, 68, lives in a two-storey house with a spacious garage, located on a quiet street dotted with aging Victorian homes. It's not far from the members-only Elks Club in one of town centre's stately brick buildings where he'd take Wortman for drinks.
The gunman would ship parcels to Conlogue's address, including motorcycle parts and a light bar used to outfit the replica police cruiser used during the rampage. Conlogue later told the commission leading the public inquiry that he didn't open the packages, and instead stored them at his home until the gunman picked them up.
Their friendship was close enough that Conlogue travelled to Nova Scotia for Wortman's 50th birthday.
The gunman and Banfield also shut down their denturist business in Dartmouth, N.S., to care for Conlogue after he underwent foot surgery and needed help getting around, according to transcripts of Mass Casualty Commission interviews.
Conlogue would take his friend for drinks at the Elks Lodge in Houlton. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)
Some time before the killings, the gunman phoned Conlogue to say he was going to leave something for him in his will, Conlogue told the commission last fall.
The gunman and his spouse spoke with Conlogue hours before the violence in Portapique, N.S., started on April 18, 2020, one of the reasons lawyers representing victims' relatives argued Conlogue should be called as a witness at the inquiry.
In a phone interview last November, the commission's investigators didn't probe Conlogue on the firearms. He told inquiry staff at no point was he under the impression he was being investigated criminally, and he expressed concern that his statements would become public.
Handgun 'sign of gratitude'
Conlogue, who declined to speak with CBC News when two reporters went to his home in late March, met the gunman years before in New Brunswick. They shared a mutual friend, former Fredericton lawyer Tom Evans.
Wortman got one of the five guns later found by police — a Ruger Mini 14 — from Evans's estate after his death, according to search warrant documents. That rifle and an RCMP-issued service pistol stolen from Const. Heidi Stevenson after he killed her during the mass shooting were the only guns investigators traced back to Canada.
The other three came from Maine, and court records suggest Conlogue once owned two of them — a Ruger P89 9-mm-calibre semi-automatic handgun, and a Glock 23 .40 calibre semi-automatic pistol.
The Ruger handgun is considered a restricted firearm in Canada, meaning people are only authorized to use it if they have a licence and it's used for a specific purpose. The Glock is prohibited because of the length of its barrel.
Two weeks after the shooting, the Canadian government announced a ban on 1,500 types of firearms, including the two rifles used in the killings, the Ruger Mini and a Colt M4 carbine. It was already illegal to adapt them with additional rounds through over-capacity magazines, as the gunman did.
Police
traced a Ruger P89 9-mm calibre semi-automatic handgun back to Houlton,
Maine, and Conlogue told them he'd given it to the shooter as a gift.
He said his friend took a Glock 23 .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol
from his home. Police found the pistol in the stolen car the gunman was
driving when he was killed. (CBC News/Illustration)
Though his name is redacted in search warrant documents, Conlogue is identifiable because details match statements he and others gave to the public inquiry.
The records state that on May 7, 2020, Conlogue explained to an FBI agent that he gifted Wortman a Ruger handgun two to five years earlier "as a sign of gratitude" in exchange for odd jobs like tree removal, since his friend wouldn't accept payment.
Conlogue told investigators that a few years before the shootings, he discovered his friend had taken two of his Glock handguns back to Canada, and when asked about it, Wortman said he "needed them for protection." One of those Glocks was found with him at the end of the shooting rampage.
According
to search warrant documents, the gunman made the approximately
five-hour drive to Maine 15 times over two years prior to the shootings,
the Canada Border Services Agency determined. (CBC News/Illustration)
Conlogue's close friends, Angel Patterson and Scott Shaffer, relayed a slightly different sequence of events in their interviews with the commission. They said that immediately after learning of the shootings, they were at Conlogue's house and he told them he'd just discovered empty gun boxes in his home.
A semi-automatic rifle and a straw man purchase
That explains where police think two of the Maine firearms came from.
But what about the third?
Police believe the shooter arranged to purchase a Colt Law Enforcement-brand carbine 5.56-mm semi-automatic rifle he admired after attending a gun show in Houlton.
It was April 2019, and he was staying at Conlogue's home at the time, according to court documents and public inquiry transcripts.
Paul Harrison, who was on the executive of the Houlton Rifle and Pistol Club that ran the popular event, said all the people selling firearms inside the arena where it was held were authorized dealers. That meant every buyer had to go through an FBI background check before a sale went through.
The
Houlton Rifle and Pistol Club's 31st Annual gun show was held April
27-28, 2019. One of the organizers said about 700 passed through the
arena over the course of the weekend. In order to buy firearms, American
residents had to provide their driver’s licence and submit to a
background check that would ensure they didn't have a record that would
prevent them from owning a gun. (The Houlton Rifle and Pistol Club/Facebook)
He said Canadians could attend and browse the 50 to 60 tables displaying everything from ammunition to snowshoes and cookbooks, but could not purchase firearms.
It's widely understood, he said, that a "straw man" purchase, where someone buys a gun for another person who is prohibited from being sold one, is "not a good thing."
"For years, local people here have gone to jail for years for doing that," he said. "So that's pretty well-known that you don't do that, whether it's a Canadian citizen or someone that has a felony and is a prohibited person."
The
gunman responsible for Nova Scotia's mass shooting in April 2020 walks
by Joey Webber's Ford Escape SUV in Shubenacadie, N.S. The gunman was
carrying a Colt Law Enforcement-brand carbine 5.56 calibre
semi-automatic rifle. (Mass Casualty Commission)
Harrison said it would not have been difficult for authorities to track who purchased a specific model that weekend, particularly because all sales came with a paper trail.
"They knew all the vendors that were there. They talked to almost all of them. I've heard several say that the FBI called them," he told CBC News.
It appears the authorities did trace the carbine's path to some extent, though exact details of the transaction and who helped Wortman remain murky in public documents.
Search
warrant documents outline how the shooter used a Colt Law
Enforcement-brand carbine 5.56-mm semi-automatic rifle and that the gun
came from Maine in 2019. He had adapted it with three over-capacity
magazines, which each held 30 additional rounds. (CBC News/Illustration )
In the summary of the statement Conlogue gave to RCMP, he said he was aware the shooter went to the gun show with someone else and bought a rifle-type gun with a pistol grip.
Police spoke to people who either appeared to have been involved in the sale of the gun, or who knew about it. It's not clear from court records whether the sale took place inside the arena hosting the gun show, or was a side-deal done outside. It's also not clear who bought the gun, and how exactly it was turned over to Wortman.
One person, who was not identified in court records, told police he sold the gun for $1,000 US to a well-dressed older man who had a Maine licence with an address he thought was in Houlton.
Another person told RCMP there was a "quick and dirty" sale of a rifle for $1,250 US, and they "did not know that the gun was for Gabriel and did not want to get arrested and go to jail."
The Mass Casualty Commission plans to release its report on how the gunman obtained firearms next week.
The
gunman's replica RCMP cruiser that was used in the Nova Scotia mass
shooting was created with a decommissioned 2017 Ford Taurus. Police
believe he shipped parts for it that he ordered online to Houlton. (Mass Casualty Commission)
Groban, the retired prosecutor, said straw man purchases — where someone fills out the official paperwork and the gun ends up in someone else's hands — are all too common in the U.S.
An estimated 100,000 people are caught lying on their firearms background check forms each year. That doesn't count the people who get away with it.
She said by comparison, the U.S. attorney's office only prosecutes about 14,000 firearms cases of any kind a year.
"Even if they just did a steady diet of these cases, they couldn't even make a dent," she said.
Margaret
Groban worked as a prosecutor for three decades and was the national
domestic violence co-ordinator for the executive office for United
States Attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice. (Submitted by Margaret Groban)
While she wasn't privy to the details of the mass shooting investigation, she said factors such as a five-year statute of limitations and whether someone may have shown a fake licence could impact any consideration of proceeding with any charges.
A person's remorse could also play a role, she said, if it was viewed as unlikely they would reoffend.
"If it was someone who …continued to give guns to people who then committed violent crimes, then that might be someone you would consider, that would weigh the scales more toward prosecuting," Groban told CBC News.
"But if it was a one-off crime with someone where he had no knowledge that this kind of awful rampage would happen, that might weigh in favour of not charging it."
Maine a corridor
She said Maine is considered a "source state" where it's easier to get guns.
"I don't think the fact of this horrible mass shooting would have been lost on the Maine authorities and clearly if some Maine-sourced guns were used that's a tragedy," Groban said. "And things should be done to make sure that that doesn't happen again."
David Pucino, deputy chief counsel at the advocacy organization Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, echoed Groban's concern about resources, and said there is little enforcement of gun laws.
He'd like to see Maine make universal background checks through a registered dealer mandatory for all firearms transactions, calling private sales that don't require them "a big failing in the state."
Twenty-two
people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Goulet,
Dawn Gulenchyn, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulenchyn, Sean McLeod, Alanna
Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi
Stevenson, Heather O'Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from top: Kristen
Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg
Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck.
(CBC)
"The United States gun problem doesn't stop at our borders. It spills over and affects every country in the hemisphere," he told CBC News from New York.
"It's tremendously troubling the ways in which the circumstances that we've seen in the United States, these mass shootings, these acts of violence are something that are happening in other countries with U.S. guns, because we've been so, so negligent here that our country, our lawmakers have failed in so many ways in advancing a stronger gun safety regime."
Houlton connection not welcomed
Eileen McLaughlin, a town councillor from Houlton, told CBC News it was unfortunate her community was now linked to the Nova Scotia tragedy.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a part of life to travel back and forth to New Brunswick, crossing the border and going to nearby Woodstock for dinner or picking up supplies when needed.
Coun.
Eileen McLaughlin of Houlton says she was troubled to learn about the
mass shooting in Nova Scotia and says she's always considered her
community a safe place that doesn't tolerate gun violence. (Eric Woolliscroft/CBC)
She said there is little gun violence in her community and border patrol agents are a frequent sight.
"People want to blame somebody. They want to blame a place, an organization. They want to say, 'Oh, he brought arms over from Houlton.' It's a reputation that just isn't fair for a community that works really hard at enforcing laws," she said.
"The people in Houlton would never have approved this person from having this weapon, and the law enforcement wouldn't. Border patrol wouldn't. The sheriff's office wouldn't. And there would have been clear legal ramifications if they had known that this had happened."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:11:37 -0400
Subject: Fwd: RE My calls and emails about Federal and provincial
governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass
shootings
To: Dwayne.King@
Ronda.Bessner@
Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:32:30 -0300
Subject: RE My calls and emails about Federal and provincial
governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass
shootings
To: "barbara.massey" <barbara.massey@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
<barb.whitenect@gnb.ca>, "Brenda.Lucki" <Brenda.Lucki@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>,
"hugh.flemming" <hugh.flemming@gnb.ca>, "Bill.Blair"
<Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca>, jpink@pinklarkin.com, andrew
<andrew@frankmagazine.ca>, andrewjdouglas <andrewjdouglas@gmail.com>,
jesse <jesse@viafoura.com>, jesse <jesse@jessebrown.ca>,
"steve.murphy" <steve.murphy@ctv.ca>,
Joel.Kulmatycki@
Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, prmibullrun@gmail.com,
tim <tim@halifaxexaminer.ca>, zane@halifaxexaminer.ca,
media@masscasualtycommission.
https://www.saltwire.com/cape-
N.S. Mass Casualty Commission to announce participants in Portapique probe
Chris Lambie · Posted: April 30, 2021, 4:43 p.m.
Investigators want to hear from anyone who can shed light on the
events of April 18-19, 2020, says the release. “If you or someone you
know wants to get in touch with the investigations team, please
contact Joel.Kulmatycki at 902-394-3501 or
Joel.Kulmatycki@
https://www.saltwire.com/cape-
'I have no idea who to trust anymore': card raises independence
questions about Nova Scotia's Mass Casualty Commission
Chris Lambie · Posted: May 5, 2021, 6:46 p.m.
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/
'We have got to have someplace to put our trust': High expectations
for the Mass Casualty Commission
Heidi Petracek 2016
Heidi Petracek
CTV News Atlantic Reporter
Published Friday, June 4, 2021 7:28PM ADT
https://www.canadaland.com/
CANADALAND
#372 The RCMP’s Portapique Narrative Is Falling Apart
Frank Magazine publisher Andrew Douglas and reporter Paul Palango
discuss their bombshell story, and what the RCMP may still be hiding
about Gabriel Wortman.
http://davidraymondamos3.
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Federal and provincial governments to hold public inquiry into Nova
Scotia mass shootings
https://twitter.com/
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos
Methinks lots of folks may enjoy what Peter Mac Issac and his cohorts
said while the RCMP and a lot of LIEbranos were stuttering and
doubletalking bigtime N'esy Pas?
https://davidraymondamos3.
#nbpoli #cdnpoli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Citizens Rise Against Corruption in Trudeau Government
58,732 views
Streamed live on Jul 27, 2020
Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson
Citizens Rise Against Corruption in Trudeau Government - Peter Mac Issac
----------Origiinal message ----------
From: Peter Mac Isaac <prmibullrun@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2020 21:42:20 -0300
Subject: Re: RE The "Strike back: Demand an inquiry Event." Methinks
it interesting that Martha Paynter is supported by the Pierre Elliott
Trudeau Foundation N'esy Pas?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
A lot of info to chew on - every now and then we win one - Today we
won a partial victory when the provincial liberals threw the federal
liberals under the bus forcing their hand . Now the spin will be to
get a judge they can control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Police Corruption? Nova Scotia Shooter - Behind The Scenes
86,369 views
Streamed live on Jul 28, 2020
Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson
Nova Scotia Shooter Behind The Scenes with Paul Palango a former
senior editor at The Globe and Mail and author of three books on the
RCMP, the most recent being Dispersing the Fog, Inside the Secret
World of Ottawa and the RCMP. His work on the Nova Scotia massacre has
been published in MacLeans and the Halifax Examiner.
---------- Original message ----------
From: Timothy Bousquet <tim@halifaxexaminer.ca>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:41:36 -0300
Subject: Re: fea3
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Hello, I’m taking a much-needed vacation and will not be responding to
email until August 4. If this is urgent Halifax Examiner business,
please email zane@halifaxexaminer.ca.
Thanks,
Tim Bousquet
Editor
Halifax Examiner
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From: Newsroom <newsroom@globeandmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:43:14 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Re My calls today about Federal Court File #
T-1557-15 Need I say that CBC lawyers such as Sylvie Gadoury and
Judith Harvie will need lawyers to argue me in Federal Court?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
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From: Ministerial Correspondence Unit - Justice Canada <mcu@justice.gc.ca>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:42:21 +0000
Subject: Automatic Reply
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for writing to the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of
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Merci d'avoir écrit à l'honorable David Lametti, ministre de la
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