Gunman’s spouse in N.S. shooting staying out of public inquiry due to charges: lawyer
Global News
The spouse of the gunman in the Nova Scotia mass shooting won't be co-operating with the inquiry as long as she's facing charges for allegedly transferring ammo to the shooter.
The spouse of the gunman in the Nova Scotia mass shooting won’t be co-operating with a public inquiry as long as she’s facing criminal charges for allegedly transferring ammunition to the shooter.
James Lockyer, a Toronto defence lawyer representing Lisa Banfield, said in an interview that he’s advised his client not to talk to the inquiry, which is attempting to unravel what occurred during her common-law partner’s April 18-19, 2020 rampage.
The killer took the lives of 22 people, including a pregnant woman, over 13 hours while driving a replica of an RCMP vehicle and dressed in a police uniform.
Lockyer told The Canadian Press Tuesday his client, “would have been in the commission’s office within 20 seconds of being asked,” were it not for the criminal charge. “It’s the criminal charges and nothing else,” he said
The RCMP have said from the outset that Banfield wasn’t aware of her spouse’s intentions, but they proceeded with charges alleging she, her brother and her brother-in-law had illegally transferred ammunition to the gunman, Gabriel Wortman.
The shooter didn’t have a firearms licence for the illegally obtained guns — two semi-automatic rifles and two pistols — that he used to commit his murders.
Banfield pleaded not guilty last May and is scheduled for trial in late March and early April just as the first portion of the public inquiry is aiming to establish the “how and why” of what occurred in the rampage.
The last day of Banfield’s trial is scheduled for April 5, about three weeks before the preliminary report of the commission is expected to be published. A spokeswoman for the public prosecution service said the prosecutors involved in her case are declining comment at this time.
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