Abdulla Shaikh allegedly used a homemade weapon to gun down three people in the past few days, according to our sources. In addition, he would have fired at least two shots in the direction of the police before being shot on Thursday morning.
Updated yesterday at 8:51 p.m.
According to police sources, the suspect made his semi-automatic handgun by assembling separate parts. He would also have had in his possession an impressive amount of ammunition and high capacity magazines.
We must do more prevention, with street gangs, in mental health and with regard to the entry of illegal weapons into Canada, thinks criminologist Josée Rioux, president of the Professional Order of Criminologists of Quebec and responsible for teaching at Laval University. “To put a gun in the hands of someone like [Abdullah Shaikh]which was probably in crisis [psychotique], that brings us to this. »
“The fact that he has already had charges [au criminel]technically, he could not buy weapons [à feu]. It would be important to know if the system failed, or if it worked for this guy. You don’t buy a weapon like that if you don’t know where to find it, ”recalls criminologist Maria Mourani, president of Mourani Criminology.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
SQ investigators visited the home of Abdullah Shaikh’s parents on Thursday
Shots fired at the police
Thursday morning, the police officers of the Tactical Intervention Group (GTI) would have approached the room he had rented at the Motel Pierre, in the borough of Saint-Laurent, and would have given a first ramming in the door, who wouldn’t give in. Still, according to our sources, the noise woke up the suspect who sat up on his bed.
The police would have given a second ramming to break down the door. The suspect then allegedly fired at least two shots at the police, who responded by killing him.
The investigation into the three cases is still ongoing. We proceeded during the day to the expertise of the electronic devices belonging to the suspect as well as to searches of his accommodation.
Death threats
A year and a half earlier, Mr. Shaikh would have threatened employees of the hospital where he was being treated with death, indicated Nathalie Bourque, interim president of the Union of workers of the CISSS of Laval-CSN. “I’m going to have your full name, I’m going to find you and I’m going to kill you,” he allegedly told one of the beneficiary attendants.
It was recurring. There were stares. He watched from afar with menacing eyes. He was tenacious in his words.
Nathalie Bourque, interim president of the CISSS de Laval-CSN workers union
At some point, Mr. Shaikh allegedly put his hand on the attendant’s shoulder and mentioned the woman’s full name. “The employee was scared. The staff contacted the police,” says Mr.me Bourque. Judging that these were veiled threats, the police would not have accepted the complaint of the employee. “She nevertheless persevered with her manager and management made the decision to change her department,” she says. Fearing that she would be found by Mr Shaikh, the woman reportedly changed her name and replaced her Facebook profile picture, she claims.
In addition, a member of the family of Abdulla Shaikh would have brought him a knife during his stay in the hospital, since the latter complained of buttering his toast with a plastic knife, says Ms.me Bourque. “The family doesn’t really see the danger. So fortunately there was the principle of the search [des visiteurs] in psychiatry and the knife was found,” she said.
The medical staff of the establishment were “in shock” when they learned that Abdulla Shaikh is the suspect of the three murders committed in the last days. “Maybe the next victim would have been someone from the hospital,” says Mr.me Bourque.
The victims of this series of homicides are Alex Lévis Crevier, a 22-year-old Laval resident, André Fernand Lemieux, a 64-year-old man, father of Quebec boxer David Lemieux, and Mohamed Salah Belhaj, an intervention officer at the hospital in mental health Albert-Prévost, 48 years old.
With Mayssa Ferah and Henri Ouellette-Vézina, The Press