CANADA - shooter in RCMP vehicle & uniform, 22 killed (plus perp), Portapique, NS, 18 April 2020 #2

[mcdonalds]

It might be the girlfriend.

I believe it was attributed to a business colleague as per the national post. Separate from the gf- a mention appears in the Redacted ITO 20.2.2 that A Novelea staff member had frequent and daily interactions with GW.

 

[Bodhi]

I note that my map never reflected the Pond house burned. The only error was saying the Blair house burned. I am trying to correct this error but am finding it extremely difficult to do so. For being my first foray into this group I have not done so well and apologize. I will back away and not post anything further, update myself on all the rules and may one day once again join the conversation. Thanks for the early warm welcomes.

I'm not sure what happened since I saw your map and photos last night. I want to say thank you for the photos of the area around 200 PBR, They gave the me the first sense of how beautiful the setting is. And I found your map extremely helpful. I had no idea that the Blair's house didn't burned. The early accounts was that it did, and that Lisa McCully came out to help.

I don't know why you feel you need to step back. I will look. But I wanted to say I hope you will reconsider.

 

[Scoobydo2]

I'm not sure what happened since I saw your map and photos last night. I want to say thank you for the photos of the area around 200 PBR, They gave the me the first sense of how beautiful the setting is. And I found your map extremely helpful. I had no idea that the Blair's house didn't burned. The early accounts was that it did, and that Lisa McCully came out to help.

I don't know why you feel you need to step back. I will look. But I wanted to say I hope you will reconsider.

Maybe what happened to the Blair home is that he started a fire but it didn't take enough to burn the house down?

 

[Amoca]

Maybe what happened to the Blair home is that he started a fire but it didn't take enough to burn the house down?

I can't quote social media, but the Blair's son did say there was burnt siding from the logs... (whatever that means, it didn't quite make sense to me what he said)

 

[Bodhi]

I can't quote social media, but the Blair's son did say there was burnt siding from the logs... (whatever that means, it didn't quite make sense to me what he said)

It's a miracle that the Blair and McCully children survived the rampage at all. I find a teeny bit of comfort that their houses didn't burn down. Not because of the material things in them. But the images I've had of the Blair children trapped at first in a burning house and running for their lives after their parents were killed has been haunting. The McCully children, had to realize why their mother hadn't returned. The two houses are very close. It is a tiny sliver of relief that the 4 children hiding together at the McCullys were not in immediate danger from the Blair house on fire. I may not be expressing it well. It is a comfort after the fact that the children may have familiar things to hold on to. But mainly I am glad they weren't hiding from the killer realizing their parents had been killed and that they were in immediate danger of being trapped in the basement because the Blair house was already burning down. Their fear would have been unimaginable already. They'd have realized it was a possibility because of the other fires. Glad to know it wasn't actually happening while they waited to be rescued.

 

[newguy123]

I re-read the redacted article and noted details about the couple who were shot at and injured but got away. They saw a large structure on fire (the warehouse) and drove down to investigate. While going down Orchard Beach Drive they past the Gulenchyn house on fire with a "police car" in the the driveway. They continued down, reported the "warehouse" on fire to 911 and then turned around. At this point they did not mention the Blair house on fire which is located between these two cited fires.
Then the idiot pulled up parallel to them, shot at them and they sped away and located real police near Portapique Beach road and the highway.
The idiot must have known his time was now limited (if he did not already) and perhaps set fire to the Blair house but in his haste, made a mess of his intentions.
Did he then go down the road and shot the Bond and Tucks, escaping thru fields in that direction?
All speculation, but might help explain the Blair house situation.

 

[paganini]

It might be the girlfriend.

I don't think it was the g/f. Reading the document, it sounded like a former business partner - not her.

 

[MistyWaters]

I don't think it was the g/f. Reading the document, it sounded like a former business partner - not her.

The person said he dressed up as a police officer and role played, plus the paranoia about the current COVID-19 situation would seem to me that of a personal and current relationship but all we can do is guess.

But the one thing this same person said might be key - that he was abused as a child, whether true or not, because a sympathy ploy is often what abusers use to pull at the heartstrings of a spouse as an excuse for domestic violence, in seeking forgiveness and so on and on it goes. JMO

 

[tayaway]

The person said he dressed up as a police officer and role played, ...

Do we know if he role played a cop at neighborhood gatherings or other places? How often did he do it? Doing it behind closed doors as part of a couples' intimacy is one thing, but outside of that, it sounds weird.

 

[MistyWaters]

Do we know if he role played a cop at neighborhood gatherings or other places? How often did he do it? Doing it behind closed doors as part of a couples' intimacy is one thing, but outside of that, it sounds weird.

I agree, what people choose to do in their bedrooms is their own business but if he was role playing a cop to the outside world that’s not only weird but illegal as it’s impersonation of a police officer. Maybe a children’s game amongst children but an adult in his 40s or 50s, how pathetic, a huge danger signal. I can’t imagine anyone seeing it as amusing or harmless if this was happening in public. IMO.

 

[CitizenCSI]

Has anyone found any info on his ammo source? I’m not sure LE has the ability to trace sources of supply through the casings headstamp. I think he may have connected with someone through the range(s). There’s also a possibility to follow a money trail for purchasing too.

 

[tayaway]

Has anyone found any info on his ammo source? I’m not sure LE has the ability to trace sources of supply through the casings headstamp. I think he may have connected with someone through the range(s). There’s also a possibility to follow a money trail for purchasing too.

The money trail option would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, ya? As a businessman with lots of customers, he knew quite a lot of people. I suppose whoever provided him with the ammo might come forward, unless it's against the law to sell/give it to somebody who does not have their PAL.

 

[Oscarjackson12]

Yes you were right about it not being the girlfriend and it was someone who had worked with him.

 

[MistyWaters]

Yes you were right about it not being the girlfriend and it was someone who had worked with him.

Is this your opinion? The name of the person giving the statement is redacted - page 28/40.

Nova scotia RCMP docs

The common law-wife apparently worked with him as well. I’m not insistent the source of the interview was her because I don’t know, but neither do I notice anything to emphatically dismiss her as the source.

BBM
“A former client at his clinic, who asked that her name not be used, recalled that Wortman and his common-law partner who worked with him were jovial and easy-going together when she received new dentures from him in September.”
Those who knew Gabriel Wortman stunned by news of shooting spree | The Guardian

 

[deugirtni]

It's a miracle that the Blair and McCully children survived the rampage at all. I find a teeny bit of comfort that their houses didn't burn down. ....

RSBM
I guess I am confused (again)? Wasn't it McCully's home, located across from GW's place, that was purchased by her from GW's uncle - the home that was discussed in early media about GW not giving up being on title of that property - that was also burned down?

 

[MistyWaters]

RSBM
I guess I am confused (again)? Wasn't it McCully's home, located across from GW's place, that was purchased by her from GW's uncle - the home that was discussed in early media about GW not giving up being on title of that property - that was also burned down?

No that home wasn’t burned, thankfully. It became a refuge for her two children and the two Blair children.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova...ting-appreciated-the-wonder-of-life-1.5539585
“After residents received word from RCMP to lock their doors and stay inside their homes Saturday night in the small community of Portapique, N.S., McCully noticed her neighbour's house was on fire.

She (McCully) placed her two young children in the basement and went back upstairs to try and help.

It speaks to her personality to step in and risk," McCully's sister Jenny Kierstead said in an interview Tuesday on CBC's The Current. "She was always a natural leader.".....

.....Kierstead said she was hoping to thank the 911 dispatcher who stayed on the line with the two children as they huddled in the basement as gunfire and flames raged outside....”

N.S. rampage victims' young sons hid during attack, family member says
“Tyler Blair told CTV News Channel that Greg and Jamie Blair's two younger sons, aged 10 and 12, hid during the attack until the killer left. Blair later told CTV's Atlantic Bureau Chief Todd Battis that the killer set fire to the house before leaving while the boys were still inside.

"They hid in the house until he was gone and then they took off to the neighbours house and hid inside with their two little kids next door until the cops came," Blair said in an interview on Wednesday.

That neighbour was elementary teacher Lisa McCully, who was also killed in the attack...”

 

[1214SD]

There’s so much to consider in the psychological profile of someone who would commit such an atrocity, but it’s pretty clear his childhood was full of hardship. The RCMP’s forensic analysis will be very interesting, and I am curious why the media hasn’t spent more time investigating his family connections. We already know this much, which seems like a good starting point for finding out more:

1. Hearsay allegation from search warrant: Shooter was beaten as a child.
2. Shooter’s younger brother was put up for adoption when shooter was just 20 months old. His parents claimed they couldn’t afford another child. Was the shooter informed of this by his parents as a child; did he know as a child that he had a brother who was given away? What role did this play in creating emotional damage to the shooter? We know that the parents eventually made contact with their “other” boy, who was adopted by a family in Massachusetts. We know that the shooter wasn’t there with them at their first meeting with his brother (more emotional cuts).
3. The shooter beat his father, Paul, during a family trip to Cuba, threatened to kill him in a conversation with his uncle Glynn, and had Glynn so spooked that he refused to come forward as a witness to the shooter's beating of his common-law wife in 2013. What else don’t we know about the shooter’s interactions with his family? How common were these death threats? Did they include anyone else?
4. One of the shooter’s college friends from the University of New Brunswick said that her other friends didn’t care much for him. Why? What were the personality traits that made him unappealing to them?
5. One of the shooter’s previous girlfriends broke off a serious relationship with him in the late 1990s when she was in her early 20s and he was in his late 20s. She said the shooter wanted her to work with him at his denturist business, which was already well established at that point, but felt she was too young and not ready for such a commitment. How much of a factor was that in affecting his own self-image, and his later treatment of his common-law wife?...

 

[MistyWaters]

I think the media is making a concerted effort to keep the focus off the perpetrator. There is absolutely no justification, regardless of what occurred in his younger days, at age 51 to take the lives of 22 innocent people.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia-shootings-psychiatrists-motive-1.5540911
"Instead of a 'whodunit' mystery, the media create a 'whydunit' narrative that results in tremendous notoriety and attention for the [accused or alleged] shooter," he said.

"I believe this is a kind of catnip for very unstable, would-be or wannabe shooters, who, while waiting in the wings, then fantasize about one-upping or outdoing the previous shooter."........

...........As well, they said, most what is learned has been known for years: that mass shooters are typically angry, aggrieved, emotionally unstable or socially isolated males seeking retribution or revenge for perceived mistreatment, rejection or humiliation.....”

 

[tayaway]

I think the media is making a concerted effort to keep the focus off the perpetrator. There is absolutely no justification, regardless of what occurred in his younger days, at age 51 to take the lives of 22 innocent people.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia-shootings-psychiatrists-motive-1.5540911

...........As well, they said, most what is learned has been known for years: that mass shooters are typically angry, aggrieved, emotionally unstable or socially isolated males seeking retribution or revenge for perceived mistreatment, rejection or humiliation.....”

Yes: "We've got a pretty good read on it from a 30,000-foot viewpoint about these things, and the motive. Now the question turns more toward prevention," he said.

We need education, from childhood through to adult on what red flags are and what to do when we see those signs.

 

[MistyWaters]

Yes: "We've got a pretty good read on it from a 30,000-foot viewpoint about these things, and the motive. Now the question turns more toward prevention," he said.

We need education, from childhood through to adult on what red flags are and what to do when we see those signs.

Yes I agree, what to do about red flags is the universal challenge that all modern democratic societies grapple with because we all value our right to freedom. At one time people were involuntarily committed to mental institutions only on the basis of unusual behaviour, often locked up for life while experiments took place in an attempt to make them “normal”. Lots of movies and documentaries made about the horrors of that era.

I wouldn't be surprised if this killer was a chronic but functional alcoholic for decades and along with the normal course of aging coupled with heavy longterm alcohol use came brain damage resulting in loss of inhibitions and who knows, he may’ve tipped into illegal drug use as well. Lurid fantasy became his reality, but purely my speculation.

However much like the sale of alcohol isn’t banned to prevent drunk drivers from killing innocent people, I’m not so sure red flags of the future will be a resolution either, unfortunately. In Canada we’ve also chosen a peaceful way of life but in turn the inability to protect ourselves from raging lunatics. But in this case the perp even got around that by appearing to be a police officer, driving a replica cruiser.

If anything can be learned of this tragedy, laws and extremely harsh sentences need to be put in place banning the unauthorized possession of any police paraphernalia even if it remotely resembles the real thing. That’s the one loophole the perp knowingly took advantage of that made his killing spree so horribly dangerous to others, including the police. IMO.