Laval, 8:30 a.m. On any normal day, there is no story to tell. In the suburbs as elsewhere, parents and children are getting ready to go to work, school or daycare. No one expects the routine to turn into a funeral march. No one imagines meeting, in the field of ruins of distress, a man sufficiently imbued with his monstrosity to mow down joy in its most precious expression… immaculate toddlers of the innocence proper to early childhood.
Laval, 8:30 a.m. A bus driver from the Société de transport de Laval (STL), Pierre Ny St-Amand, rushes into a daycare center in the Sainte-Rose district. He kills two children and injures six others, who are hospitalized, but whose lives are no longer in danger. He mourns parents, families, friends, young and old. It traumatizes an entire neighborhood, a city, a nation, in shock at the sight of so much cruelty and inhumanity.
The path he took leaves no doubt about the premeditated nature of his gesture. The detours and bends he had to make to crash into the daycare center located in a cul-de-sac, at a time when the parents are going to lead their children to this cozy nest, suggest that he knew perfectly well what he was doing and that he planned his heinous crime.
Charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault were filed in the evening against the 51-year-old man. He will be subjected to a psychiatric evaluation, taking into account the circumstances of the gesture. After rushing into the daycare, he got blazing naked, ready to do battle with the parents taken aback who had to put in four to control him before the arrival of the police.
Psychosis? Mental distress? Revenge for sheer insensitivity? Combination of all that? For the moment, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions and pinpoint the motive for this heinous crime. The authorities have ruled out the terrorist act, it’s already a start.
The police investigation will bring the case to light. As part of the legal proceedings, we will be able to establish whether Pierre Ny St-Amand was able to distinguish right from wrong, and whether he can be held criminally responsible for his actions. It will be a long, frustrating process for bereaved and traumatized families who will want immediate answers. And we understand them.
The examination of this sad story should not stop at the police investigation. The mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, quickly jumped to conclusions by saying that no one could have predicted this unspeakable act and that municipalities should do more to prevent mental health problems. Solidarity in the drama, the STL was stingy with comments on the care of its employee.
It’s hard to imagine his state of mind could have magically deteriorated in Laval at 8:30 a.m. The ticking time bombs take time to swell with resentment and dismay before they explode.
It is possible that the STL did not see the warning signs of Pierre Ny St-Amand’s distress. An employer is neither a clinician, nor a confidant, nor a psychologist, even if he is asked to be a bit of all of these at the same time in this post-pandemic world. But when one of its drivers sets off on one of its buses to kill innocent children, that organization must necessarily be asked other, admittedly nasty, questions in a public forum like a coroner’s inquest.