Police ID firm used to make RCMP decals for N.S. shooter’s car

Owner hadn’t given permission for replicas

HALIFAX— RCMP investigators in Nova Scotia have identified the business used to make the RCMP decals that the gunman in last month’s mass shooting used to outfit his replica RCMP car.

Although they did not name the business in their update on the investigation into the 13hour shooting spree that began in Portapique, N.S., on the evening of April 18, RCMP said the replica decals were created without the permission of the business owner. The owner and the person who made the decals are co-operating with police.

Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people in rural communities in northern Nova Scotia before being killed by police at a gas station in Enbridge, N.S., on April 19. Police reported he was initially driving a replica RCMP car and wearing a Mountie uniform.

The RCMP release also said that fires set by the gunman during the rampage appeared to be aided by an accelerant.

Police noted that he had a “significant” supply of gasoline at his Portapique home.

Police revealed in the release that when the gunman left the Portapique area on the evening of April 18, he was carrying two semi-automatic handguns and two semi-automatic rifles. Police said they traced one of the guns to Canada and believe the other three were acquired in the U.S.

The Canadian Border Services Agency is involved in helping to further trace those guns.

Police did not release information on the calibre of the weapons, citing their ongoing investigation.

During the investigation, dubbed H-Strong, police completed ground searches on all 17 crime scenes and used groundpenetrating radar to scan the ground underneath Wortman’s Portapique property. The RCMP’s Behavioural Analysis Unit is putting together a “psychological autopsy” of the gunman to try to determine his motive. According to police, this will include “an analysis of his personality, past behaviour and how he related to others.” Wortman was known to have had a history of contentious property disputes — including one in Portapique involving his uncle — and was also known to have had arguments with his longtime girlfriend.

Wortman was with his longtime girlfriend in Portapique on the evening of April 18, when they got into an argument. When the fight escalated, he assaulted the woman and bound her at one of his properties in Portapique.

She managed to escape and when police found her the morning after the massacre began, she told them that the gunman was driving a replica RCMP vehicle and wearing a Mountie uniform.