(Halifax) The RCMP must be held accountable for mistakes made in April 2020, in Nova Scotia, by police forces who failed to stop a gunman from killing 22 people during a 13-hour rampage, lawyers for the families argued on Tuesday.
Posted at 6:25 p.m.
Lawyers representing most of the victims presented their final oral submissions to the commission of inquiry, which began its public hearings in February.
The federal-provincial investigation cannot assign blame or conclude criminal or civil liability. On the other hand, the commission will publish non-binding recommendations, by March 31, to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
“Now is not the time to shy away from assigning blame, lest it look like blame,” Ms.e Sandra McCulloch, whose firm represents the majority of victims’ families. Our clients are entitled to a candid and honest assessment of what went wrong. »
“General Failure”
Me McCulloch argued Tuesday that evidence shows the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was unprepared for what happened on the evening of April 18, 2020, when a man dressed as a police officer and driving a replica patrol car started killing neighbors and strangers in rural areas, in Portapique.
The inquest heard that Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist from Dartmouth, was able to evade police and killed nine others the following morning, before being shot dead by two RCMP officers who spotted him in a gas station north of Halifax.
“The (RCMP) was unprepared and its members unprepared for such a massive event and we observed a widespread inability to think outside the box, with tragic consequences,” said Ms.e McCulloch.
“Our customers say this widespread failure to prepare has led to a host of fundamental errors. These are not errors to be camouflaged behind a lack of funding or by pretexting an unprecedented event. […] These are, in the eyes of our customers, elementary errors which contributed to the unprecedented nature of the event. »
Lawyer Tara Miller, whose firm represents the relative of another victim, Kristen Beaton, who was pregnant when she was murdered, said public confidence in law enforcement has been damaged. shaken by “a string of failures, mistakes and missteps by the RCMP.
Warning signs?
Me McCulloch pointed out that the RCMP failed to recognize troubling events prior to the shooting that should have flagged Wortman as an individual of concern. Among other things, the inquest heard he threatened to kill his parents in 2010 and told someone he wanted to “kill a cop” in 2011.
A woman also told the commission that she learned from an eyewitness that Wortman suffocated his partner in 2013. Brenda Forbes said she told two police officers, but nothing was done.
“Whether it was a wealthy white man, who cleverly presented himself as pro-police […] or that the RCMP […] just didn’t take the time to note and investigate these red flags, the outcome is the same,” Ms.e McCullogh.
The lawyer argues that the RCMP did not have certain basic resources, and that it did not properly use the resources at its disposal. She told the commission that the RCMP helicopter was unavailable on those days and senior officers could not access mapping technology to track the killer’s whereabouts.
Me McCullogh concludes that the RCMP were fundamentally ill-prepared, ill-trained, and ill-equipped for a major killing spree on the outside.
Miscommunication
The lawyer also referred to flaws in the RCMP’s public communication strategies. She cited in particular the fact that the federal police had waited until 10:17 a.m. on Sunday morning, the day after the start of the killing, to warn the population that the killer was traveling in a replica patrol car.
We learned at the inquest that the RCMP had used Twitter to warn the public that a killer was at large ten hours after the start of the killing in Portapique on Saturday evening. Additionally, the inquest heard that the RCMP initially ruled out using the “On Alert” system to send intrusive warnings to most radios, televisions and cell phones, even though they had been encouraged to use this system. years earlier.
On another front, M.e Miller cited evidence showing the RCMP obtained a photo of the killer’s replica cruiser at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, but it took them more than two hours to relay this critical information on Twitter.
Kristen Beaton was murdered shortly after 10 a.m. that morning; the RCMP tweet about the replica cruiser was forwarded at 10:17 a.m.
Lawyer Josh Bryson, who represents relatives of victims Peter and Joy Bond, said the RCMP’s chain of command was “cumbersome” as decisions about additional resources required multiple layers of bureaucracy. He indicated that according to his clients, the RCMP took too long to put in place a command structure in the event of a major incident.
Four to five glasses of rum
Me Bryson also noted that an off-duty RCMP officer, Sergeant Andy O’Brien, was giving orders by two-way radio the night of April 18, 2020, even though “he was not able to make decisions” and that he had consumed four to five glasses of rum earlier in the evening.
Me McCulloch also cited failures to gather evidence, delays in notifying relatives of victims and protests that erupted when some RCMP officers called to testify before the inquest were exempted from direct cross-examination.
She also told the three commissioners that relatives of the victims felt excluded by the commission’s decisions. “For many, their faith in this process has diminished or even been lost,” said Ms.e McCulloch. They need to know that they have been heard. »