The Lionel Desmond fatality inquiry wrapped up Wednesday in Port Hawkesbury with testimony from counsel on behalf of the Borden family, the Desmond family, Nova Scotia physicians, and a community outreach worker.
Desmond family lawyer, Adam Rodgers, says one item that was suggested involving gun ownership makes sense.
“Well anybody that applies for a Possession and Acquisition License needs to have references and those references should be contacted to make sure that the person is a safe individual. The addition of having a spouse as part of that process certainly seems to make sense, their information can be taken into account. They wouldn’t have a veto but they would have some input and I think that makes sense.”
Judge Warren Zimmer will take time now to prepare a report with recommendations. His report will be filed within the year.
Cassandra Desmond, sister to Lionel Desmond, says one area she hopes the judge will focus on is the advancement of the ‘one patient, one record’ program in Nova Scotia.
“That’s the start to their healing, that’s the start to the knowledge to the care professionals in their lives to know what they went through, what they’re going through. You know the past, the present, the future. It helps.”
That program would effectively make a patient’s health records more accessible to health care providers by eliminating the need to have multiple records at multiple different facilities.
Thirty-three-year-old Lionel Desmond was an Afghan vet. He was diagnosed with PTSD in 2011 as well as major depression and a possible traumatic brain injury.
In January 2017, Desmond entered his family’s home dressed in camouflaged clothing and shot his wife, their 10-year-daughter, and his 52-year-old mother before turning the gun on himself.
