RCMP sought access to mass shooter's data storage devices, unsealed documents show
Unsealed search warrants related to Nova Scotia’s recent mass murders show that RCMP officers recovered an ammo box, an undisclosed number of bullet rounds and various electronic items belonging to the dead gunman at his burned-out Portapique residences.
The gunman killed 22 people between Portapique and Enfield and burned a number of structures during his 13hour rampage that began late on April 18.
Documents unsealed Monday morning — in Truro provincial court by Judge Laurel Halfpenny-MacQuarrie — of items seized by police from 200 Portapique Beach Rd., list an ammo box containing a burnt $100 bill, a burnt receipt book, a burnt gun barrel and action, a black plastic bag and another ammo box.
Bullets rounds were found at the gunman’s property at 136 Orchard Beach Dr. while nothing was seized from property searched at 287 Portapique Beach Rd.
At the gunman’s business property at 193 Portland St., Dartmouth, seized items include a Toshiba laptop, an SD card, a GPS unit, an Actiontec router, a Thin Blue Line Sticker, a white, 2013 Ford Taurus (Interceptor model) and a white 2105 Mercedes.
The RCMP search warrants had sought permission to search for any firearms, ammo, explosives, chemicals, computers and other electrical devices capable of storing data. In addition to providing permission to search various properties, the heavily redacted warrants are also intended to elicit information from others that police feel could be relevant to the ongoing investigation.
An earlier Information to Obtain (ITO) a search warrant was released May 19.
A total of 20 ITOs are in the hands of the Crown attorneys, information that is being sought by a number of media outlets, including SaltWire Network.
Further hearings have been set over the coming weeks to deal with the remaining ITOs, warrants and production orders.
David Coles, legal counsel for the media involved, will determine how much further his clients wish to proceed after he has had a chance to view additional information to come from the federal and provincial Crown attorneys.
“I don’t believe my clients will be in any position to give me instructions until we have the reasons for the redactions,” he said during Monday’s hearing.
“And, indeed, once we have the reasons, because that is being separated from my ability to hear the evidence and cross-examine, if necessary, the decision as to whether we wish to proceed, may in fact not be able to be made, at least in whole, until we have heard the evidence from the witnesses.”
Provincial co-Crown Mark Heerema said that information explaining why portions of information have been redacted will be forthcoming.
Information contained in a previously released 40-page document included witness evidence that described the Halifax denturist as a “sociopath,” a “psychopath, who was “controlling and paranoid". It also indicated that he was a funeral director and “licensed embalmer” who would speak of getting rid of bodies, burning and chemicals.
“(The killer) would tell (redacted) different ways to get rid of a body and had lime and muriatic acid on the property,” the warrant says. “The barrels for these would be underneath the deck.”
He also kept a case of ammunition in a two-bay garage in his log home in Portapique, one of the structures he burned.
The killing spree began late on the night of April 18 following an argument that had ensued between the gunman and his common-law wife.
That ultimately resulted in her being assaulted and confined to an “out of commission” police car, one of several the killer had on his Portapique property.
After she escaped and hid in the woods, the 51-yearold gunman then began his prolonged killing spree before eventually being fatally shot by police at a gas bar near Enfield, where he had stopped for fuel.
The information says the killer had two semi-automatic rifles and three pistols in the stolen vehicle he was driving when he was killed.
He was driving a mockedup RCMP vehicle and wearing a police uniform when the rampage began.