The “murderous madness” that led to the death of three men this week in the Montreal region was an “isolated event”, according to Mayor Valérie Plante, who calls on the population to “not give in to fear”.
Posted at 12:37 p.m.
“It’s absolutely disturbing, but we must not give in to fear, it could have happened anywhere, and we must dig a little and look: why did it happen? What happened ? “, she wondered Sunday during a press briefing in front of the town hall.
Valérie Plante took the opportunity to reiterate her call to restrict access to firearms, while offering her “deepest condolences” to the loved ones of the bereaved families.
At the end of a “murderous madness”, as described by the mayor, a 26-year-old man, Abdullah Shaikh, allegedly killed three men in the space of 24 hours in the Montreal area, last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Call for more investment in mental health
Shot dead by law enforcement while hiding in a motel in the borough of Saint-Laurent, the alleged killer had significant mental health issues and was allowed to stay in the community even though he still represented “a significant risk to public safety” according to a psychiatrist who assessed him last March.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Abdullah Shaikh was shot dead in his room at the Motel Pierre, in the borough of Saint-Laurent, on Thursday.
This is why Mayor Valérie Plante also called on the Quebec government to invest more money in mental health. “We need to develop tools to ensure that people with mental health problems are well treated, to find solutions,” she explained.
Even if the City of Montreal wants to be proactive outside of its areas of jurisdiction, as Valérie Plante says, it remains limited in what it can do. “We have to open up, we have to give the means to those who are on the front line, including the SPVM, including social workers, including community organizations, so that they can do their job,” she insisted.
An electoral issue
On the eve of the fall provincial elections, Valérie Plante intends to make public safety a central issue in the upcoming campaign.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, PHILIPPE BOIVIN
The Mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante
“When we talk about this alleged killer who was struggling with mental health issues, we realize that public safety is beyond the understanding we had before, you have to think outside the box,” said she explained.
The mayor wants to see the parties of the main provincial political parties position themselves “very loudly and strongly” on the issue of firearms, in particular. “We need ways to prohibit and legislate, to enter the networks of creation of phantom weapons”, she added in reference to the case Abdullah Shaikh who would have manufactured himself the weapon which he would have then used to commit three murders.
“Just slogans”
Present at the mayor’s press briefing on Sunday, the leader of the official opposition at city hall, Aref Salem, criticized Valérie Plante’s speech, believing that her exit came too late and amounted to “just slogans “.
“Ninety-six hours have passed without a member of the administration coming out to calm the concerns of Montrealers, it’s unacceptable,” he lamented.
According to him, the police are understaffed, an observation he made after consultations with certain members of the SPVM. “I understand that this is an isolated gesture, but this person went through the system. […] It takes mixed squads, there is already one that exists in the police […]we have to expand it, we have to hire more police,” continued Aref Salem.