(Quebec) Several victims of the saber attack in Old Quebec testified Tuesday at the resumption of the trial of Carl Girouard. They described the sordid journey of a methodical killer, calm and diligent in killing.
Updated yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
“It wasn’t clutter, it wasn’t tapping to tap. He was trying to hit to kill, ”cook Pierre Lagrevol told the jury.
The French-born man was walking in Old Quebec with his friend Lisa Mahmoud on October 31, 2020. When Mme Mahmoud met Carl Girouard, dressed like a ninja, she says “having smiled at him”.
Then the killer surprised the two friends when he raised his saber to strike Mr. Lagrevol on the head before attacking the young woman.
Distraught, Pierre Lagrevol says he screamed with all his might to get the killer’s attention and save his friend. “The last shots were to skewer,” he said Tuesday at the Quebec courthouse.
The two seriously injured friends were able to flee, unlike Suzanne Clermont and François Duchesne, who perished at the hands of the assailant that evening.
“I thought he wanted to play a joke on me”
Rémy Bélanger, the killer’s first target, told the jurors that he first thought it was a Halloween joke when he saw the man in black raise his saber in front of him. “I thought he wanted to play a joke on me. I thought he wanted to piss me off. »
The defense lawyer questioned the victims about Girouard’s attitude. Mand Pierre Gagnon notably asked one of the victims who had heard the assailant laugh if he had a “demonic laugh”. Recall that the killer admitted to attacking passers-by with a sword, but that he alleges non-responsibility due to mental disorders.
The policeman who arrested Carl Girouard told the court that he had found him at the Quai Saint-André, in Old Quebec, standing, his saber in his hand.
SPVQ PHOTO, PROVIDED BY THE CANADIAN PRESS
Carl Girouard
“He was calm, listened to our instructions, but did not answer our questions,” explained agent Dany Gauthier.
The Crown also filed several pieces of evidence on Tuesday, including text messages between the accused and his brother. The two young men were arguing the day before the killing, in a series of messages where they discussed money, hashish and video games For Honorwhich depicts warriors armed with swords.
In the bedroom of the 26-year-old accused, the police found a symbol of chaos, an eight-pointed cross, drawn on a mirror. The same cross was found on the dashboard of the car that Girouard abandoned in front of the Château Frontenac the evening of the killing.
The police who visited the apartment of the accused in the wake of the killing were also surprised to find a blade planted in the mattress of his room.