This was one of a handful of interactions after more than a thousand traffic stops that stood out.
An RCMP officer testified on Monday that in February 2020, he swore to Gabriel Wortman to return to his vehicle after stopping for speeding, and the 51-year-old immediately introduced himself as a “clear threat” by returning back to the cruiser in Portapique, NS
“The way he approached was very direct, purposeful. He looked angry, I had no idea who this man was and why he would behave like that, “Const said. Nick Dorington said in a public inquiry into the shooting and arson that injured some and left 22 dead, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP employee.
However, the exchange “de-escalated quickly” after Wortman returned to his car and the two had a brief conversation, Dorington said.
“He kept telling me he felt he was being targeted,” and agreed after Dorington explained that the suspension was in no way caused by an earlier quarrel Worthman had with Halifax Regional Police over a dispute. for parking, the official said.
The shooter then emphasized his attachment to the Ford Tauruss, saying he had several of them and was collecting police supplies, but Dorington said a minute-long conversation did not prompt him to worry about public safety.
Dorington, who spent 17 years in the military before joining the RCMP in 2015, was based in Colchester County and was one of the officers who responded to the mass shootings on the night of April 18 and April 19. This weekend he was on call after a day shift.
During testimony Monday, he was critical of the role of one of his RCMP leaders in the response, and said he disagreed with the decision to send only one team to the portapique section where people were killed. He also believes he should have been sent to pursue the shooter the next morning.
Const. Nick Dorington said he took a picture of the shooter’s driver’s license and speed radar as evidence in case the driver challenged a slip in court. (CBC photo illustration)
After learning that he had stopped the suspect a few months earlier, Dorington shared photos he had taken of the shooter’s book and the back of a decommissioned Ford Taurus he was driving.
He said the vehicle he stopped had faded reflective strips from the time it was RCMP, and that it had a small Canadian flag in the back of the trunk.
But, as several other Mounties have said before to the Mass Victims Commission while imagining what the suspect was driving, he never imagined a fully marked cruiser like the one the shooter assembled and drove during the rampage.
Disappointed with the positioning
Between midnight and 5 a.m., Dorington and another police officer were parked on Highway 2, four kilometers east of the Portapic crime scene.
Dorington testified that he “had a challenge” with a sergeant. Andy O’Brien’s direction to settle there because he thought it “contradicted” his training in tracking active shooters.
The public inquiry previously found that senior officers monitoring the response were concerned about the possibility of sending more than one team to the “hot zone” where the shooter was last seen, due to a possible safety risk for officers to engage in crossfire. or a “blue-on-blue” situation in which they confused each other for the suspect.
The commanders did not have GPS coordinates for the general police officers on duty on the ground.
But Dorington said tonight that he thought the approach should have been to use “as many teams as needed to locate and neutralize the threat” and agreed with the proposal by commission adviser Roger Burrell that it was caused disappointment.
Problems with the role of supervisor
During a behind-the-scenes interview with commission officials, Dorington criticized O’Brien’s involvement, saying he was off duty and spoke on the radio from home.
On Monday, he said that although he had since given up criticism of O’Brien’s training, he said his involvement had challenged him to know who was responsible.
“Receiving instructions from Sergeant O’Brien, although I’m sure I have good intentions, created … extra airtime on the radio, which is problematic. And I think that created confusion in the chain of command,” Dorington said.
O’Brien and Dorington worked closely together on Sunday in Portapic. Both remained in the community, following the crime scene.
After calls began for new shootings in the Wentworth area, Dorington said he was “not allowed” to leave to help with the search, although he had exposed his case to O’Brien.
“I felt this, given my skills with previous military training in active theater [along] with RCMP training combined with the fact that I had an unmarked vehicle that I would probably be best positioned to leave my current location, “he said.
At one point, Commissioner Leanne Fitch asked Dorington if he had ever attended or instructed courses to monitor the response to a critical incident. He said no.
Dorington said he was a sergeant in the military, so he had similar duties as O’Brien and was in charge of a unit in that capacity.
Passing by seeing a shooter on Sunday morning
While in Portapik on April 19, Dorington advised his wife to take shelter in their basement. He said information gathered by the shooter’s wife, Lisa Banfield, suggested he had a list of those killed, and he was worried he might be targeted, given that he was the last Mountie to interact with the shooter.
Officials who interviewed Banfield in the back of an ambulance testified earlier in the investigation, saying that while she told them her sister in Dartmouth might be at risk, they were not describing a list of those killed.
Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row left: Gina Gulet, Dawn Gulenchin, Jolin Oliver, Frank Gulenchin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Hall, Lisa McCully, Joey Weber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joan Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom line: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corey Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
After learning of the situation, Dorington’s wife called a friend who accidentally spotted a marked RCMP cruiser driving south toward the Halifax area on a minor highway. Dorington tried to find out if there was a real cruiser in the area and then announced it to his colleagues on the radio after possible surveillance.
There was a lot of chatter on the radio at the time, and Dorington said he felt there was a “significant delay” in spreading his message, which he said was “appropriate and high priority.”
The felt equipment was insufficient
Equipment and training was another area Dorrington opposed.
He said that given that the RCMP controls mostly rural Canada, more active shooting training should be conducted outside, with more focus on night scenarios.
Night-vision goggles or handheld devices to identify heat sources would also be useful, he said, so that general duty officers do not have to wait for specialized resources such as the emergency response team.
Lawyer Sandra McCulloch, who represents many members of the families of those killed, asked Dorington about comments he had previously made about the investigation, that requests for officers’ safety had been rejected by the squad commander before April 2020.
Those demands include a chair to limit people who could pose a physical risk to themselves or others in the squad, Dorington said.
He also called for rotating floodlights for vehicles, which he said would help illuminate long lanes and lanes better than fixed lights on cruiser light strips, which only move when the vehicle does.
The request for patrol levers – which he said would be cheaper than repairing vehicle damage – was rejected about a week before two of the squadron’s cruisers were written off after one crashed into another, he said.
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