Montreal police shot and killed Abdulla Shaikh, 26, in a motel parking lot early Thursday morning after he allegedly killed three men in Montreal and Laval, a suburb north of the city, within a span of about 24 hours. Two men, aged 64 and 48, were fatally shot about an hour apart on Tuesday night, before a third man, a 22-year-old, was murdered on Wednesday night.
Police suspect the murders were committed by the same suspect, seemingly at random.
“Regarding the weapon that this individual obtained, the investigation is still ongoing as to where he could have obtained the weapon,” Benoît Richard, spokesman for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), told CTV News.
“Right now, we know he didn’t have a gun permit.”
THE SHOOTER IS DEEMED A “SIGNIFICANT” RISK
As the police investigation continues into the multiple homicides, a decision by Quebec’s mental health review board raises concerns about the health care system’s ability to properly monitor people with mental health issues who are released back into the community.
In March, a decision by the mental health review board – the Troubled Trials Commission – said Shaikh could continue to live outside a mental health hospital, despite his psychiatrist judging him to be a “significant risk to public safety” due to his mental health. condition. The mental health review board accepted testimony from his psychiatrist that he had made some improvements in the months leading up to the hearing last spring.
The doctor recommended — and the board agreed — that he be allowed to remain free as long as he meets certain conditions set by the hospital, including the recommendations of his treatment team. He made the recommendation despite noting a number of concerns about his patient’s behavior, including “denial and trivialization of behavioral disorders, violence and psychiatric pathology,” as well as “the heavy history of criminal charges of various kinds still is rejected, which trivializes the future risks of the action’.
When reached Friday afternoon, the psychiatrist declined to comment.
Shaikh was found not criminally responsible in July 2018 after being charged with mischief following a series of incidents at Montreal-area airports. In one incident, he set fire to his passport with a candle near the entrance to Montreal’s Trudeau airport.
CTV confirmed that the attacker had been released under conditions in 2021 from the Hôpital de la Cité-de-la-Santé in Laval.
On Friday, CISSS de Laval, the regional health board that oversees the hospital, released a statement to CTV saying it was aware of the killings this week but could not answer specific questions — including whether the conditions of Shaikh’s release had been met – due to patient confidentiality.
The statement said it is the district health board’s responsibility to ensure “compliance” with the treatment and care orders patients must follow when they are released into the community.
“In the event that CISSS de Laval is informed that a user does not comply with the terms or is deemed not to comply with the terms issued by [Tribunal administratif du Québec] and the Supreme Court, public safety will be called upon to enforce these conditions,” the statement said.
“CISSS de Laval wishes to express its condolences to the families of the victims.”
OVERBURDENED HOSPITALS: PSYCHIATRIST
A Montreal psychiatrist not involved in Shaikh’s case said the bar is sometimes set very low when deciding whether or not a person deemed a public safety risk because of their mental state can be released.
“They have to get to the lowest state that will still ensure that society is not at risk. [fewest] possible conditions,” said Dr. Gilles Chamberland.
“But the problem is that the hospital should take care of these conditions. Hospitals are there to treat patients, not to follow people who could be dangerous again.”
Dr. Chamberlain, who works at Montreal’s Philippe-Pinel Psychiatric Hospital, also pointed to a lack of resources for people when they leave a conditional mental health facility. In some cases, he said, outpatient clinics turn people away because they are too dangerous.
“We have a patient in Philippe-Pinel, and every source is denying the patient. We have a court order to release him, but we don’t know where because he’s been denied everywhere,” he said.
Lawyer François Legault, who represented Shaikh in March at his annual release review, questioned whether police acted too quickly given his fragile mental state.
“It was important to protect society. I totally agree with that, but why is it so important that we don’t take more steps before going in? Knowing that he might be in possession of a weapon and also knowing that he had major mental health issues,” she asked.
“Why didn’t you get the social workers or maybe a psychologist to come with the police team and try to start a conversation with him?”
He noted that even if someone is “the worst [kind of] criminal’, have a right to dignity.
“Just because this person killed three other people doesn’t mean he deserves it,” he said. “You have a right to be arrested… They are [up to the] the justice system to take care of it. We don’t kill people just because they kill others.”
Legault added that he had not seen Shaikh since March.
“We are all sorry for what happened to the three victims,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, on March 29th, there’s nothing to suggest that this could happen.”
“REST IN PEACE MY BROTHER”
The families of the multiple homicide victims are also trying to figure out what happened.
Roxanne Crevier, the sister of the third victim – 22-year-old Alex Levis Crevier – said in a social media post that his death was a “painful nightmare” and that she cannot walk from the scene where he was killed.
A makeshift memorial on Clermont Avenue in Laval where 22-year-old Alex Creview was fatally shot Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. (Billy Shields/CTV News) Crevier was shot around 9.30pm on Wednesday on Clermont Avenue and pronounced dead at the scene. A skateboard was found near his body. On Thursday afternoon, his sister posted a photo on Facebook of a makeshift memorial at the crime scene. “All I have are these memories now… seeing you happy to be with us, to be with your nephews,” she wrote in a text alongside the photo. “I already miss you.” The other victims were André Lemieux, the 64-year-old father of professional boxer David Lemieux. He was fatally shot around 9:45 p.m. near the corner of avenues Jules-Poitras and Deguire in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent district. About 65 minutes later, 48-year-old Mohamed Salah Belhaj was shot at around 10:50 p.m. at the intersection of Sauvé Ouest and Meilleur streets in the city’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville commune. The case has been turned over to Quebec’s provincial police force, the SQ, which said it believes the attacker acted alone and appears to have chosen his victims at random. With files from CTV Montreal’s Daniel J. Rowe and Ian Wood
