NS Mass Shooting more Investigation. Image credit: Twitter handle CCFR
The Nova Scotia massacre of April 18-19, 2020, when the gunman, Gabriel Wortman went on a deadly rampage across the province in a mock RCMP car killing 22 people reportedly has new details about Wortman, being raised in a home of violence and psychological torment, continued the pattern set by a father he hated.
New documents were released on Monday on the violence in Wortman’s family by the Mass Casualty Commission leading the inquiry into what happened on April 18-19, 2020,
“He never treated him like a little boy. He treated him like an animal,” Glynn Wortman, Paul’s brother reportedly said in a police interview shortly after the massacre.
According to the foundational document released on Monday, the commission has not yet interviewed members of the Wortman family through its own team, despite attempts to speak to some of them.
In his interview with the RCMP, Paul Wortman, the tunman’s father, reportedly said that he had a hell of a temper and screamed a lot but denied hitting him
When Gabriel was about two and a half, Paul decided that Gabriel didn’t need his favorite blanket anymore and burnt it in front of him
When the gunman was reportedly younger than 10, his father Paul made him kill the family dog.
Incidents such as the above led him during the rampage in April 2020, to shoot several dogs.
The gunman reportedly also felt that his mother never protected him from the abuse due to which he had no respect for women or for his father.
After growing up, the gunman went to the University of New Brunswick, studying psychology. He met his first wife there and became a funeral director and later set up a denturist practice in the Halifax area.
On a family trip to Cuba around 2000, the gunman assaulted his father, Paul, who said Gabriel beat him until he was unconscious.
Banfield, who was also on the trip, said the fight began because Paul was denying how he’d treated the gunman as a child.
At the time a Halifax Regional Police officer was investigating the allegation, Paul told the police officer that his son had several serious weapons including pistols and long-barrelled guns, without a license.
But since Paul hadn’t seen them himself in more than five years, the officer believed he couldn’t get a search warrant.
According to medical records, the gunman was referred to psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Maynes in 2000, whom the gunman saw four times. For these visits, the term narcissistic personality was listed under his chart.
He also saw Dr. Cynthia Forbes in Fall River for hypertension in 2009 and reported a “history of alcoholism.”
At that time, Forbes suggested the gunman see a psychologist to help him deal with stress but he wasn’t interested at that point.
The gunman didn’t return to Forbes until June 2018, and between that time and January 2020 he visited her seven times for treatment of benign hypertension.
“He had a horrible upbringing from a very dysfunctional family. And, um, never sought help … and … fell through the cracks,” Chris was reported to say.
Chris also told police he always knew the gunman was capable of killing someone, most likely his parents or Banfield, but not to this extent.
Samuelson said when he connected with his birth family in 2010, Gabriel was shell shocked with the knowledge of having a long-lost brothers he had to go through a horrendous upbringing alone with no role models,
On Monday, a witness panel on mass shootings and masculinity, and an expert on intimate partner and family violence is expected to throw more light on the inquiry.
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