Moncton man says Portapique, N.S., shooter tried to buy a used police car from him

A  New Brunswick man who sells decommissioned police cars is recalling an encounter with the man responsible for the mass shooting in Nova Scotia on Sunday.

“Pretty plain spoken — there wasn’t anything crazy about him at all,” said Bernard Cain, owner of Cain Ltd surplus shop in Moncton.

Cain believes that the man who took 22 lives in a shooting rampage on the weekend, tried to buy an old police car from him just over a year-and-a-half ago at his shop on Gauvin Road in Dieppe, N.B.

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“They showed pictures of him on television and I said ‘well that was the guy that was here in the grey suit that wanted to buy the Mountie car,'” he said.

Cain said that most of the people looking to buy old police cars are young men in their 20s looking for a cheap, fast car.

He said he found it a little odd when the man dressed in a grey suit walked through his front door looking to buy an inexpensive older RCMP car.

“Right away I said ‘what the hell do you want a police car for’ and he said ‘I am a retired RCMP,'” Cain said.

Cain took him at his word.

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Cain says the man told him he was looking to buy an inexpensive older police car for about $1,500 for theft-prevention.

“The reason that he wanted the car was to put on his property to keep the locals from stealing everything out of his cottages,” said Cain.

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Cain says he never did sell the man a car, nor did he question him any further about his claims to be a retired RCMP officer.

“I wasn’t interested, and when I told him how much I wanted for the car he wasn’t interested,” said Cain.

Cain believes the shooter could have purchased the car he used in the mass killings at a government surplus shop in Dartmouth, N.S.

As for his own shop, Cain said anyone can buy an old police vehicle from his lot because they are completely stripped of all policing decals and equipment.