New videos show the Nova Scotia shooter’s longtime partner reliving what she saw and experienced the night the rampage began two years ago. The Mass Casualty Commission leading the investigation into what happened on April 18 and 19, 2020, when Gabriel Wortman attacked his partner Lisa Banfield and killed 22 people while driving a dummy RCMP car, released new documents and images on Wednesday. Among them are video reenactments from October 2020, when Banfield took an RCMP investigator about what she remembers happening at Portapique. Banfield said the evening began with the couple celebrating their 19th anniversary and having drinks in the gunman’s large garage next to his holiday home. They were video chatting with friends in the United States and talking about how they planned to have a commitment ceremony next year. That’s when their friend Angel Patterson said, “Don’t do it.” This upset Banfield and she left the garage. Halfway to the cottage, Banfield said she decided to turn around and apologize to Wortman, but by the time she arrived he was already “pissed off.” She told the committee she could not calm him down and went back to the cottage and to bed. What appeared to be minutes later, Banfield said the gunman pulled the covers off the bed and attacked her, kicking her against the bedpost. He then pulled her through the cottage which he noticed was already filled with petrol and set the building on fire as soon as they got outside. She then told police the gunman led her through the woods to the garage.
NS gunman’s eyes were ‘just so cold’, ex-common-law husband says
New videos show Lisa Banfield, the longtime partner of the Nova Scotia mass shooter, recounting what she saw and experienced the night the rampage began two years ago. Once inside the garage, the gunman began dousing the vehicles outside with gas. He dragged Banfield into the garage and handcuffed her left hand. But when he asked for her right hand, Banfield said she held it back.
The ex-NS gunman describes what he thought would be her last moments before she was shot
Lisa Banfield recalls the tense moments when she begged for her life. While in the back seat of the mock RCMP cruiser behind the Plexiglas partition, Banfield said the gunman loaded several firearms into the front of the vehicle. He then went up to the attic apartment in the garage and she tried to kick out the back seat windows without success. He managed to slip the handcuff from her left hand and was able to open a window in the partition and dive into the front seat. She ran out of the garage, not taking any of the guns in the cruiser — something she told officers she’s replayed in her head.
NS gunman’s ex-partner mourns because he is paralyzed with fear
Lisa Banfield recounts what she saw and experienced the night the outbreak began two years ago. After running out of the garage, Banfield tried to hide in one of his trucks, but worried it would be set on fire and fled into the woods. Banfield told police how she spent the next few hours alone, hearing gunshots and terrified the gunman would find her.
Lisa Banfield describes the sounds she heard coming from beyond the forest she hid in
Nova Scotia shooter’s former common justice partner describes in her own words what she could hear while hiding in dark woods in Portapique, NS While Banfield was hiding, the gunman killed 13 people in the small community. She remained hidden inside a fallen tree overnight as temperatures dropped to near freezing, investigative documents said. Banfield said she believed that if she could survive until dawn, she could venture out for help.
“Lisa, just do it.” How the former NS gunman finally found help
Terrified and pained, Lisa Banfield describes how and when she emerged from her hiding place in the forest of Portapique, NS, After first light, she went to a neighbor who called police shortly before 6:30 a.m. on April 19. RCMP emergency response team members picked her up in an armored vehicle minutes later. Medical records released through the inquest show Banfield spent five nights in the hospital after suffering broken ribs and vertebrae, as well as extensive bruising and scratches from the night of April 18.
