RCMP responding to mass shooting in Nova Scotia linked to federal murder case

HALIFAX – RCMP officers who responded to the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia are linked to the alleged mishandling of a 2017 murder case that is under federal review.

The Nova Scotia mass shooting investigation this week revealed the identities of RCMP officers named in a 2018 internal police review into shortcomings in the police response to the Susie case Butlin.

Butlin had complained to Nova Scotia RCMP that she was sexually assaulted and harassed by Ernest Ross Duggan before killing her in September 2017.

Const. Greg Wiley, who on August 26, 2017, received Butlin’s harassment complaints and was appointed as the lead investigator.

According to the internal police report, Wiley « determined there was no basis for the charges » and advised him to block Duggan on Facebook.

Butlin’s murder investigation is now the subject of a federal civilian review examining the RCMP’s response to his complaints and the adequacy of its handling of sexual assault investigations.

Wiley is also the officer who was asked to check if Gabriel Wortman – the man who murdered 22 people in April 2020 – had guns at his home in Portapique, Nova Scotia, in 2010. Around that time , Wortman had threatened to kill his parents in New Brunswick.

The investigation into the alleged death threats did not result in any charges.

Wiley also told the public inquiry he met Wortman ‘between 10 and 20 times’ during a relationship with the killer that developed after the constable helped solve a robbery case at the home. from Wortman to Portapique.

The internal Butlin report was originally submitted to the inquiry in a redacted form that obscured the names of the officers. Inquiry attorney Jennifer Cox said Monday that the non-disclosure of officers’ names « impacted our ability to do the job. »

Cox added that the inquest will work to rectify the situation and « overcome the fact that we may have missed opportunities to interview witnesses when they appeared before the commission. »

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 30, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.

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