The gunman behind the worst mass shooting in our country’s history was spotted several times after he killed 13 people and escaped from Portapique, N.S. on April 18, 2020.
Witness Valerie Smith told police days after the murders took place she saw a “strange” police car with push bars on the front driving around Debert late that night.
It was Gabriel Wortman, as he rode around in his mock cop car. As many as five people in Great Village and Debert reported seeing the suspicious looking vehicle driving around without its lights on.
“I thought it was like around quarter after eleven, there was a marked RCMP car come from down in Portapique with no headlights on, no tail lights, no noth – no lights, just the running lights on and I hollered at my boyfriend, I said, ‘What the hell, why is there a marked cop car coming back,’ I say, ‘All the other cop cars are going to Portapique, why is this car coming back this way with no lights on, only running lights?”
However, Smith and others were unaware of what had taken place about 20 minutes away in Portapique and they never contacted police.
RCMP had only four vehicles with push bars in their fleet at the time, three were SUV’s and the other cruiser was in Kings County.
Wortman spent the night in an industrial park before leaving just before 6 a.m. on April 19.
Gabriel Wortman driving mock police cruiser after escaping Portapique on April 18, 2020
Two teens were in a field close by listening to music and saw the replica police car circling around in the business park in Debert.
They also spotted the bars on the front of the vehicle – and – a tree branch sticking out of the hood.
“And then we were just hanging out there, and then once it was like, twelve thirty, like almost one, uh, we saw a patrol car come down, like, down Ventura Drive. And then he did a couple laps and didn’t look like a actual like, it did but there was like some things off, and he just wasn’t acting like a police officer …
’Cause he was like, going on the side of the road, kind of pulling off like every like, couple metres, checking things out. And then we saw him go down, like in the base. I … I think he was just scoping out stuff. And after, like, after that, I started to walk home, ’cause it was getting late. And I saw him do a couple more laps.“ – Teen statement to police contained in documents released on Wednesday, March 8
The owner of the industrial park called police after he checked out his property on April 19 and discovered ammunition packaging, slippers, a gun belt and RCMP high brown boots with Wortman written inside them.
RCMP high brown boots found on the ground at the industrial park in Debert, N.S.
Wortman would go on to murder nine other people before he was killed at a gas station outside of Halifax.
Meantime, commissioners ruled on Wednesday afternoon the first three responding officers will testify at the proceedings in late March. The officers will be subpoenaed to answer questions about their decisions, including the issue of containment of the rarely used road in Portapique which Wortman used to escape.
Lawyers for families of victims want to hear from officers who responded during the early hours of the shooting. However, legal counsel for the force argued live testimony will re-traumatize first responders and go against the inquiry’s mandate
We also learned the gunman’s common law spouse, Lisa Banfield, will testify at the proceedings at an undetermined date.
The Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) is probing whether more could have been done to save lives and come up with recommendations to strengthen public safety.
Twenty-two people were killed during a 13-hour rampage on April 18-19, 2020 in northern Nova Scotia.
