A New Brunswick Area Firearms Officer says he didn’t know all the complaints against Lionel Desmond while he was investigating the former infantryman’s firearms license.
Joe Roper appeared on the first day of the third session of Desmond Fatality Inquiry in Port Hawkesbury Tuesday.
Roper told the inquiry, around the time he investigated a complaint in New Brunswick, Desmond faced another in our province, but the AFO never received it.
“I was shocked when [the lawyer] brought it to my attention,” he said. “I wasn’t aware of it at all.”
In both incidents police had been called because Desmond had threatened to harm himself.
Roper said incidents with police involving firearms should be tagged with a Firearms Interest Police notice, or FIP, which automatically triggers an investigation from an AFO.
He said knowing about the second incident would have changed how he handled his investigation.
“There’s no question that that FIP, in combination with the other, apparently there were a couple of incidents that weren’t coded properly,” he said. “If I had been able to speak with the officers, and got all the facts, certainly the decision may have been different.”
Roper said the first time he became aware of the second incident was while going over documents with counsel in preparation for his testimony.
