The Dartmouth denturist who killed 22 people in April “was severely abused as a young boy,” Mounties learned right after the mass murder.
The same witness told police the killer “was very smart, cheated, was a psychopath and abused (his common law spouse of 19 years),” according to documents called informations to obtain warrants that were released Wednesday by a judge.
The killer “had a mental break down,” the same person, whose name is redacted, told the RCMP.
Though to some, he had been behaving normally just days before the killing started. One investigator spoke with a person who had been in communication with the murderer on April 14 and 15 about some potential business he was going to do for the denturist.
“I am currently residing at my cottage in Portapique,” the killer wrote. “I am enjoying this prelude to retirement, unfortunately not able to get to Maine.”
In the note, the killer, who was obsessed with COVID-19, says he had been “studying the news” and signs off with “stay safe.”
During their anniversary celebrations, an argument between the killer and his spouse resulted in her being assaulted, handcuffed and put in the back of an out of commission police car, according to one information to obtain.
SaltWire is not naming the killer.
His spouse told police that they were celebrating their 19th anniversary with drinks at a warehouse the killer owned in Portapique near his log home style cottage. “They weren’t married but had Face-timed friends,” she told Mounties April 19.
Another acquaintance told Halifax police that she received a text around 6 p.m. the night the killings started that contained a photo of the killer and his partner.
She told investigators the killer “was a sociopath and abusive,” according to the heavily redacted documents.
She described him showing her what looked like a machine gun one New Year’s Eve. “This gun was kept in the fireplace by the warehouse.”
The killer’s spouse told police on April 19 that she managed to get away from him and hide in the woods after he burned down their cottage.
“(The killer’s spouse) said that when she was in the woods she heard a couple of guys at a house on the back road and then she heard gun shots and then there was silence. The house went up in flames after that.”
She also told police her partner was heavily armed with military style weapons and that she thought he had a ballistic vest.
She told police that the killer had told her “that he was going to the city to get” a woman whose name is redacted from the documents. Halifax Regional Police went to her home and provided security as the killer had not been located at that point.
Police were also told the killer was armed with cases of grenades he had obtained in the U.S.
The killings started in Portapique, where the Dartmouth denturist had a cottage, on April 18 after his partner said he snapped. The murderer shot multiple people and set homes on fire.
Dressed in a police uniform and driving a fake police car, he evaded RCMP and killed four more people in Wentworth before heading toward Halifax, killing several more along the way, including at least two women in their cars. Mounties have said they shot him dead April 19 at the Enfield Big Stop. In all, he killed 22 people.
The Dartmouth denturist “showed a complete disregard for human life as he shot at people sitting in their cars, people walking on the side of the road, and at people in their private homes,” say court documents.
At the scene of the crash where the killer rammed his fake police car into RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson’s patrol car on Highway 224 before killing her and taking her firearm and ammunition, police discovered a dead body in the back of the killer’s car. “The body in the back seat was determined to be Joseph Webber,” say court documents. Webber, who went by Joey, was a 36-year-old resident of Wyses Corner.
A witness to the murders of Stevenson and Webber told police the “gun fire sounded like popping.”
In the grey Mazda the killer was driving, which he’d stolen from another denturist he’d murdered, police found a Colt Law Enforcement Carbine semi-automatic rifle. They also found several loaded over-capacity 30-round magazines for the weapon. Police were able to source the rifle to a California gun shop. In court documents they note it was smuggled into Canada.
A Mini 14 Ruger semi-automatic rifle was also in the car. Attached to it was a 40-round magazine. There was another identical magazine for the weapon in the car as well as a five-round version. Investigators sourced that rifle to a Winnipeg gun shop, but came to the conclusion that the killer obtained it illegally as he didn’t have a firearms license.
A Glock 23 semi-automatic pistol in the car was equipped with a loaded, over-capacity magazine. “There were spent shell casings for this gun located in the vehicle,” say court documents that note it was equipped with a laser sight that switched on when the user squeezed the grip. Investigators determined that weapon came from a Maine gun shop and must have also been smuggled into the country.
Const. Heidi Stevenson’s loaded 9 mm Smith & Wesson was also in the car, along with boxes of ammunition.
Police determined all of the over-capacity magazines in the car came from outside Canada because none of them had been altered to hold more than five rounds.
A couple who lived near the killer in Portapique told police they were getting ready to go to bed around 11 p.m. on April 18 when they spotted a large structure fire nearby.
They drove over to check it out and noticed what looked like a police car parked by the burning building. Then they saw what looked like a police car pull up alongside them.
The driver rolled down his window like he wanted to talk, say court documents.
Then the male driver of the other car saw the killer had a firearm with a laser sight pointed at his head. The killer shot and the driver ducked “and one shot grazed the side of his head and the other got him in the shoulder.” His wife wasn’t injured.
They sped away and were met by real police cars that had arrived on the scene.
“When he was sitting on the side of the highway waiting for the ambulance he felt something in his coat and pulled out a bullet. It was under his shirt,” said the man, who noted the bullet “was gold and it was about a centimetre in diameter and the front of it was pretty mushroomed.”
Last week Mounties charged the killer’s common-law wife with providing the gunman with ammunition he used during the mass murder. Her older brother and brother-in-law are facing the same charges.
RCMP said last week that none of the three knew how the ammunition would be used.
