It was one of the few interactions after more than a thousand traffic stops that stood out.
An RCMP official said on Monday that in February 2020 he had sworn to Gabriel Wortman that he would return to his vehicle after being stopped for speeding and that the 51-year-old immediately presented himself as a “clear threat”. “walking back to the cruise ship in Portapique. NS
“The way he approached it was very direct, determined. He seemed enraged, he had no idea who this individual was and why he would behave that way,” he said. Nick Dorrington told a public inquiry into the shooting and the fire that injured some and left 22 people dead, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP agent.
The exchange “declined rapidly,” but once Wortman returned to his vehicle and they had a brief conversation, Dorrington said.
“He proceeded to tell me he felt he was being targeted,” and he complied after Dorrington explained that the shutdown was in no way provoked by a previous altercation Wortman had with Halifax regional police. for a parking dispute, the officer said.
The gunman then showed his affection for the Ford Taurus, which had some of them and picked up police paraphernalia, but Dorrington said the one-minute conversation did not cause him any concern for public safety. .
Dorrington, who spent 17 years in the military before joining the RCMP in 2015, was stationed in Colchester County and was one of the officers who responded to the mass shooting during the night of April 18. and on April 19th. That weekend he was on duty after work. a day shift.
During Monday’s testimony, he criticized the role of one of his RCMP supervisors in the response and said he did not agree with the decision to send only one team to the Portapique section where people died. . He also thought he should have been deployed to chase the gunman the next morning.
Const. Nick Dorrington said he took a photo of the gunman’s driver’s license and speed radar as evidence in case the driver was challenging a fine in court. (CBC photo illustration)
After learning that he had arrested the suspect a few months earlier, Dorrington shared photos he took of the gunman’s license and the back of the Ford Taurus that had been out of service.
He said the vehicle he had stopped had faded reflective strips from the time it was an RCMP car and had a small Canadian flag on the back next to the trunk.
But, similar to what several other teams have previously told the Mass Victims Commission, while imagining what the suspect was driving, he never imagined a cruiser completely marked as the one the gunman mounted and drove during the massacre. attack.
Frustrated by the positioning
Between midnight and 5 a.m., Dorrington and another officer were parked on Highway 2 examining vehicles four miles east of the crime scene in Portapique.
Dorrington said he “had a challenge” with the sergeant. Andy O’Brien’s direction of settling in because he felt he was “at odds” with his training related to tracking active shooters.
The public inquiry previously learned that senior officials overseeing the response were concerned about the possibility of sending more than one team to the “hot spot” where the shooter was last seen due to the possible security risk of agents involved in a crossfire or a “blue on blue” situation in which they were confused with the suspect.
Commanders did not have GPS coordinates for general service officers on the ground.
But Dorrington said that night that he thought the approach should have been to use “as much equipment as needed to locate and neutralize the threat,” and he agreed with the suggestion of commission attorney Roger Burrill. which caused him frustration.
Problems with the role of the supervisor
During a backstage interview with commission staff, Dorrington criticized O’Brien’s involvement because he was off duty and spoke on the radio from his home.
On Monday, he said that while he has since dismissed criticism of O’Brien’s training, he maintained that his involvement made it difficult to know who was in charge.
“Being instructed by Sergeant O’Brien, although I’m sure he was well-intentioned, was creating … extra air time on the radio, which is problematic. And in my opinion, it created confusion for the chain. Command “, Dorrington. dit.
O’Brien and Dorrington worked closely together on Sunday at Portapique. They both remained in the community watching the crime scene.
Once they began receiving calls about new shootings in the Wentworth area, Dorrington said he was “not allowed” to leave to help with the hunt, despite presenting his case to O’Brien.
“I felt this considering my skills with prior military training in active theater [along] with the formation of the RCMP, along with the fact that I had an unmarked vehicle, which might be best positioned to leave my current location, ”he said.
At one point, Commissioner Leanne Fitch asked Dorrington if he had ever taken or taught courses to monitor a response to a critical incident. He said no.
Dorrington said he was an Army sergeant, so he had duties similar to O’Brien’s and was in charge of a unit in that capacity.
Passing by the sight of a gunman on Sunday morning
While in Portapique on April 19, Dorrington advised his wife to take refuge in the basement. He said information gathered from the gunman’s spouse, Lisa Banfield, suggested that he had a list of successes and that he was concerned that he might be seen as a target given that he was the last Mountie to interact with the gunman.
Officers who interviewed Banfield in the back of an ambulance previously testified in the investigation and said that while he told them his sister in Dartmouth could be at risk, they did not describe a list of successes. .
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 above: 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)
After learning of the situation, Dorrington’s wife called a friend who noticed a marked RCMP cruise that was driving south toward the Halifax area on a side road. Dorrington tried to find out if there was a real cruise in the area and then communicated by radio to his colleagues after the possible sighting.
There was a lot of talk on the radio at the time, and Dorrington said he felt “there was a significant delay” in the distribution of his message, which he considered “relevant and high priority.”
The felt equipment was insufficient
Equipment and training was another area with which Dorrington had problems.
He said that since the RCMP primarily controls rural Canada, there should be more active training for outdoor shooters and a greater focus on night scenes.
Night vision goggles or handheld devices to identify heat sources would also be helpful, he said, because general service officers would not have to wait for specialized resources such as emergency response equipment during a crisis.
Attorney Sandra McCulloch, who represents many relatives of people who were killed, asked Dorrington about comments she had made prior to the investigation into receiving requests related to officers’ safety from a commander. significantly before April 2020.
These requests included a chair to restrict people who could pose a physical risk to themselves or others in the detachment, Dorrington said.
He also called for revolving spotlights for vehicles that he said would help illuminate long lanes and alleys better than the fixed lights on cruise light bars that only move when a vehicle does.
He said a request for pushbuttons on patrol vehicles, which he said would be cheaper than repairing damage to vehicles, was denied about a week before two of the detachment’s cruisers were canceled after one step back in another, he said.
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