Coroner orders public inquiry into Montreal shootings

.

Quebec Chief Coroner Pascale Descary has ordered a public inquiry into the three random fatal shootings in Montreal and Laval last week, as well as the death of the suspect in the homicides.

.

Descary ordered the investigation after questions were raised about how the suspect, 26-year-old Abdulla Shaikh, was a free man despite a psychiatrist determining in March that he posed a “significant risk” to public safety. The Mental Problems Examination Commission, an administrative court, decided that Shaikh could continue to live outside a hospital despite the assessment. The court’s decision was made as part of a criminal case in which, in November 2018, Shaikh was found not to be criminally responsible for his actions. He had been charged with mischief after he acted strangely at the Dorval and Mirabel airports.

“The hearings will allow any person of interest to express themselves on the circumstances of these deaths in order to analyze all the contributing factors, and this, with a view to proposing possible solutions for a better protection of human life,” Descary said in a statement. . on Monday.

.

Shaikh was killed by police at a motel in the St-Laurent district on Thursday as they pursued him as a suspect in the deaths of André Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj and Alex Lévis-Crevier. The three victims were killed within 24 hours, beginning with Lemieux’s death near his apartment in the St-Laurent district on the night of August 2. Belhaj was shot near his home an hour later in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district an hour later, and Lévis-Crevier was killed the following night in Laval.

Descary named Géhane Kamel as the coroner who will lead the investigation and said that Shaikh’s death at the hands of the police will be part of it.

The three homicides are being investigated by the Sûreté du Québec and Shaikh’s death is being investigated by the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes.

[email protected]