Quebec police say the gun used to kill three people in the Montreal area this week was acquired illegally.
Provincial police spokeswoman Genevieve Gagnon says 26-year-old Abdulla Shaikh, who is suspected of killing the three men at random, did not have a firearms license.
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A suspect in three murders in the greater Montreal area who was killed by police Thursday represented a significant risk to public safety due to his mental state, according to a recent ruling by a mental health review board. The scene where a 26-year-old man was killed after being shot by Montreal police at a motel in Montreal’s St-Laurent borough early Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter McCabe
But she says police still don’t know how he obtained a gun.
READ MORE: Suspect who killed 3 in Montreal area represented ‘significant risk’ to public safety
Shaikh was killed by Montreal police Thursday morning, he is suspected of killing three men within a period of about 24 hours.
Quebec’s mental health review board ruled in March that Shaikh, who was under the supervision of a mental health hospital after being found not criminally responsible in a November 2018 mischief case, posed a “significant risk” to public safety, but allowed him to continue living in the community.
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Police allege he shot two men, Andre Fernand Lemieux, 64, and Mohamed Salah Belhaj, 48, on Tuesday night in Montreal and killed a third man, Alex Levis Crevier, 22, in Laval, Que., around 24 hours later.
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