It was impossible to foresee that Abdulla Shaikh, suffering from schizophrenia, could commit the irreparable by becoming the alleged perpetrator of three murders which occurred at the beginning of the week in Montreal and Laval, estimates the former lawyer of the suspect, shot Thursday in the age of 26. His psychiatrist had however assessed last March that he represented a “significant risk” for public safety.
“It’s not easy because we don’t want to make mistakes. Nobody wants to make a bad decision, but we don’t know the future,” sighed the To have to Friday Me François Legault, who said he was shaken by the acts allegedly committed by his former client.
Mr. Legault, who has nearly 40 years of experience in criminal law, represented Abdulla Shaikh last March in the context of an annual review conducted by the Commission for the Review of Mental Disorders of Quebec (CETM) regarding the risk that posed the young man for public safety. This was the fifth hearing conducted by this court since a verdict of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder was delivered against the young man, who had been charged with several offenses in the summer 2018.
Mr. Shaikh notably set fire to his Canadian passport using a candle while he was outside Montreal-Trudeau airport on July 19, 2018, where he was surprised the next day in a waste warehouse while probing “the doors leading to a controlled area”, according to a decision of the Commission handed down on March 29. He showed up again in the following days at this airport, then at that of Mirabel, where he was arrested “for attempted break and enter”.
The young man, who suffered from schizophrenia and other mental health disorders, has since been hospitalized at least once at the Institut Philippe-Pinel, a high-security psychiatric hospital. However, it was the CISSS de Laval that was monitoring him at the time of his death, Thursday morning, confirmed The duty. A delegation of power had also been granted to the treatment team so that it “can benefit from rapid and effective means of intervening if the mental state of the accused were to deteriorate, endangering the security of the public”, for example by forcing the detention of the latter, notes the decision of the CETM.
A report issued in anticipation of this annual review by psychiatrist Martin Vézina also concluded that the young man, whose psychiatric care he had taken over in December 2019, represented “a significant risk” for public safety because “ of his mental state. However, the expert considers that Mr. Shaikh should not be detained in a psychiatric institution, but rather continue to live in freedom under certain strict conditions: he must in particular remain with his parents, in Laval, undertake not to consume drugs and submit to urine tests when requested by the healthcare team. The Commission decided in the same direction as this report.
These are, in general, “very tight conditions” that are imposed on people with mental problems who represent a risk to public safety, assures elsewhere in an interview with the To have to Friday the head of the psychiatry department at the Philippe-Pinel Institute, Mathieu Dufour. However, a balance must be found in order to make the decision “which is the least custodial” for the patient, while protecting the population. In this context, “the system is not necessarily infallible”, he agrees.
“The system has failed”
Thus, five months after the CETM’s decision, the young man committed irreparable harm by killing in cold blood two citizens who were on the public highway in the boroughs of Saint-Laurent and Ahuntsic-Cartierville on Tuesday, then a 22-year-old who was skateboarding on Wednesday night. Each time, the victims were hit in the head by projectile fire. After an exchange of gunfire between the police and the suspect, the latter was shot dead around 7 a.m. Thursday, in front of a motel in Saint-Laurent.
However, “we had no clues that he could be as dangerous,” says lawyer François Legault, in reference to his former client. The Commission also mentioned in its decision that the mental state of the individual began to improve in recent months, although he continued to trivialize his behavioral problems and his criminal history.
“It’s a demonstration that the system has failed”, notes the criminologist and president of Mourani-Criminologie, Maria Mourani, who believes that “our system for managing offenders with mental disorders needs to be revised”, at the light of this case. According to her, Quebec should consider creating a specialized tribunal for mental health cases.
Experts are also wondering how this young man was able to obtain a firearm, considering his heavy criminal history. Mr. Shaikh was charged in 2016 with obstructing the work of a police officer, possession of property obtained by crime, assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault and uttering death threats.
“If it’s an illegal weapon, we fall into an area that will affect all organized crime and bikers,” notes the former detective sergeant at the Montreal City Police Service, André Gélinas, who hopes that the ongoing police investigation will shed light on this point.
The Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault took part in a working meeting on Friday with representatives of the SPVM, the Sûreté du Québec and the Laval police in order to “know the needs of the police forces” and to to be able to “facilitate their work to continue to ensure the safety of citizens” in the context of the resurgence of violent events that have occurred in Laval and Montreal in recent months, indicated to the To have to his press attaché, Louis-Julien Dufresne.
Tenant in Toronto
A few years ago, the man shot by the SPVM lived in a residential area of Pickering, east of Toronto, confirmed The duty. On site, Ali Syed, who still resides in the semi-detached bungalow, explains that he rented a room from Abdulla Shaikh a few years ago, but that he has few memories of the young man.
“He didn’t stay long,” said Ali Syed, who was surprised to learn that his former tenant had been shot dead by Montreal police. “I don’t watch the local news much,” he explained.
With Etienne Lajoie