Attorney Jessica Zita, representing Lisa Banfield, addresses the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia on April 18/19, 2020, in Truro, NS on Thursday, September 22, 2022. Gabriel Wortman, dressed as RCMP police officer and driving a replica police cruiser, murdered 22 people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan The wife of the gunman who killed 22 Nova Scotians in the 2020 mass shooting is calling for improved police training and handling of domestic violence. Jessica Zita, a lawyer representing the killer’s wife Lisa Banfield, told a federal provincial inquest Thursday that police should have identified the gunman as a high risk of causing significant violence, given his “disturbing history.” “Police have failed to protect Nova Scotians from the perpetrator by failing to follow up on opportunities to identify him as a danger on multiple occasions dating back several years,” Zita said Thursday. Long before Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people in an April 2020 rampage in rural Nova Scotia, he attacked a teenager in 2001, threatened to kill his parents in 2010 and told someone he wanted to “kill a cop” in 2011. A former neighbor of the shooter, Brenda Forbes, testified that she told police Wortman had pinned Banfield to the ground in July 2013, but nothing was done about it. Zita said police should update their protocols and training so they are better equipped to spot “high-risk situations” and respond to domestic violence. “There needs to be a mandate to train officers to respect and empower victims of domestic violence, including those who are hesitant and ambivalent,” Zita said. “Police forces should be trained about coercive control and how it manifests itself,” he said. Erin Breen, who represents the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the Avalon Sexual Assault Center and Wellness Within, told the research that the data shows a high correlation between perpetrators of mass murder and a prior history of gender-based violence. Banfield has testified that Wortman assaulted and threatened her with weapons on multiple occasions during their 19-year relationship. Investigative interviews also found he was violent with his first wife. “It is therefore at our own peril that we, as a society, cling to uninformed biases and stereotypes to dismiss gender-based violence as a private issue that does not affect us personally,” Breen said. Zita also told the inquiry that the RCMP’s conduct in gathering information to accuse Banfield of providing ammunition to the gunman was misleading, “ill-informed and irrelevant.” Banfield, her brother and brother-in-law were charged in December 2020 with providing ammunition to Wortman before the mass shooting, though none of them knew how the ammunition would be used. Their charges were resolved through restorative justice. The lawyer said RCMP officers feigned sensitivity in their many conversations with Banfield after the mass shooting while “conspiring” to charge her. Zita said one of Banfield’s attorneys asked police to notify them if they were investigating Banfield as a suspect, but that did not happen. “The police need to know that this is inappropriate action on their part and inappropriate behavior to betray the trust of a victim of domestic violence,” Zita said. The inquest is scheduled to have its final day of public proceedings on Friday, although counsel for the Commission says they are monitoring Hurricane Fiona as it heads towards the East Coast to ensure it is safe for participants to attend. The federal Department of Justice, the Nova Scotia Attorney General, the National Police Federation and the East Coast Prison Justice Society are scheduled to make final submissions Friday. Members of the public will continue to be able to submit suggestions to the survey via phone, email, survey and mail until the end of the month.