N.S. mass shooter had a history of intimidation, violent altercations

Warning: Details in this story are disturbing 

The man who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in April 2020 had a history of violence in the decades before his final rampage, inflicting assaults and harassment on strangers, employees, and patients alike.

New documents released by the Mass Casualty Commission leading the public inquiry examining the killings on April 18 and 19, 2020, show Gabriel Wortman had a pattern of intimidating, beating, stalking and berating anyone who offended him.

In interviews with police after the shootings, dozens of people going as far back as a woman he dated briefly after high school in 1986 describe him in terms including "creepy," "violent," "deranged," and "obsessive." 

Women who worked for him, or were patients at his denture clinic, repeatedly told investigators he made them uncomfortable, and men cited his dangerous temper and extreme rage as intimidating enough to prevent them reporting physical violence.

"He f--king scared the hell out of me," one former patient told police.

The man, identified only as BK, lived near the gunman's denture clinic in Dartmouth and ran into him occasionally when putting garbage in their shared dumpster. Wortman offered to fix the man's "scraggly" teeth and agreed to a monthly payment plan.

But when BK couldn't make his $50 payment in December 1999, Wortman confronted him at the dumpster, tackled him to the ground, tore the dentures out of his mouth and shoved a handful of snow into his mouth. 

"He goes, 'Merry Christmas to you.' And he walked away," BK recalled.

BK didn't go back to reclaim his dentures and went out of his way to ensure he didn't cross paths with Wortman again. He moved out of the area within a month.

Former employees told police it wasn't an isolated incident. 

Renée Karsten, a denturist who worked with Wortman at his Dartmouth clinic from about 2001 to 2007, said he would "snap" every once in a while. She described twice seeing him break patients' dentures in half or smash them on the floor because the patients complained about the fit. 

Karsten also told police about the day Wortman stormed out of the clinic — leaving a patient in the chair  — to beat a man who had been sitting on the windowsill of his building, having a smoke. 

"[He] just lost it and just grabbed him," Karsten told RCMP. "Just grabbed him off the windowsill and pulled him away from the window and just beat the shit out of him."