Despite the bloody journey of the assailant who killed two people and injured five with his saber in Old Quebec, Carl Girouard was collaborative and calm when the police finally intercepted him after 2 hours and 20 minutes of searching.
• Read also: Halloween attack: victims first thought it was a joke
• Read also: Halloween attack in Quebec: he saw himself as an “agent of chaos”
The duo of police officers who arrested the assailant in Old Quebec around 12:50 a.m. on November 1, 2020 came to explain how the suspect reacted when he was arrested.
A few minutes earlier, security agents had just seen Girouard in a bush near space 400and and directed the police who were nearby.
When constables Audrey Boulet and Dany Gauthier approached him, weapon in hand, the suspect was standing, sword in his left hand. “He’s waiting for us because he’s watching us, he’s not moving,” recounted agent Boulet.
The 26-year-old defendant then threw his katana in the air, giving the impression that he wanted to plant it in the ground.
Still following the instructions of the police, the suspect advanced towards them with his arms in the air and let himself be handcuffed without resisting.
The man, however, refused to identify himself. He said “check my tank, a 2006 Saturn Ion, you’ll know who I am”, adding “in front of the Castle” as a clarification. This is where Girouard began his murderous run.
Ambulance
Since the police believed he was hypothermic – the assailant was wearing a simple kimono whose sleeves had been cut – an ambulance was requested to bring the suspect to the CHUL.
Like the two police officers, the ambulance driver who took charge of the suspect affirmed in the courtroom that Girouard was “calm” and that he “cooperates well, without resistance”.
He responded minimally to the questions posed by the paramedic, often by nodding.
Undressed and placed on a stretcher, the patient “let us tie him up quietly,” said paramedic Pierre-Luc Laflamme. According to him, the man was oriented and had no delusional remarks.
“It was a call like any other, that’s what was strange,” finished the paramedic, referring to the fact that his patient had just committed homicides and injured several people.