Police agencies across Nova Scotia were warned in May 2011 that a denturist named Gabriel Wortman had a stash of guns and said he wanted “to kill a cop,” according to records newly obtained by CBC News.
Police agencies across Nova Scotia were warned in May 2011 that a denturist named Gabriel Wortman had a stash of guns and said he wanted “to kill a cop,” according to records newly obtained by CBC News.
But the Nova Scotia RCMP can’t say what, if anything, was done with the tip about the man who police believe went on to kill 22 people, including an RCMP officer, in rural Nova Scotia in April.
The 2011 warning came after an unnamed source approached Truro police Cpl. Greg Densmore with detailed information about where Wortman kept his guns, including that he may have been transporting a handgun between his home in Dartmouth and his cottage in Portapique, N.S.
CBC News obtained a copy of Densmore’s report from the Truro Police Service through an access-to-information request. Sections are redacted, but it shows the bulletin was distributed through the Criminal Intelligence Service of Nova Scotia, a network of policing agencies that share information.
There appear to be contradictions around who was responsible for acting on the tip.
Wortman’s cottage in Portapique is in RCMP territory, but his principal residence in Dartmouth was not in RCMP jurisdiction, said Cpl. Jennifer Clarke, spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP.
She doesn’t know if anyone from the RCMP ever followed up on the concerns.
“I don’t know what was done or what wasn’t done at the time,” she told CBC News.
CBC followed up with Clarke on Friday, but she wasn’t able to provide any additional details about what the RCMP did with the 2011 tip.
“We can’t speak about specifics of the follow up to the 2011 bulletin because our database records have been purged as per our retention policies,” Clarke wrote in an email.
“Preliminary indications are that we were aware and at minimum provided assistance to [Halifax Regional Police], which aligns with the RCMP’s approach for such enquiries.”
Bulletin purged from RCMP records
The Halifax Regional Police say they investigated the tip at the time and even interviewed some of Wortman’s relatives. Investigators determined that any information about weapons was related to Wortman’s cottage and not his property in Dartmouth.
They sent their findings to the RCMP, according to Const. John MacLeod, a spokesperson for the Halifax Regional Police.
But Clarke said that as the manhunt for the gunman began in Portapique late on April 18, the RCMP didn’t have the information in the 2011 bulletin at their disposal as it had been purged from their records. She said the force typically keeps such warnings for only two years.
When asked whether that information could have been help