A man accused of fatally shoving a 92-year-old senior admitted in a 911 call that he pushed him because he walked onto his property with his dog.
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“I asked him to back off because he [y a un jeune enfant avec moi]. He continues to advance, I just wanted to pack him down, to say: “Get off my ground”, Abraham Leblanc had launched to the 911 dispatcher, after the fall of the elderly man.
The appeal made by the accused on October 26, 2019 was played at the opening of his trial for manslaughter, at the Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse.
At the time of the tragedy, Lionel Martineau, 92, was walking his dog Wilson. Passing in front of the residence of Abraham Leblanc on rue Jeanne-Mance, in Beloeil, he would have walked on his land, with the animal.
“Just Pushed Back”
Unhappy, Leblanc allegedly asked him to back off three times. But the eldest would have continued to approach.
“I just pushed him away. He lost his footing, he fell to the ground. He hit himself and he’s bleeding behind his head,” he explained to the dispatcher.
According to the testimony of a health care aide, Mr. Martineau had hearing and sight problems. He used to take walks around the neighborhood.
When the 911 call was made, the eldest was awake, but he struggled to answer Mr. Leblanc’s questions, particularly regarding his age.
barely touched
Abraham Leblanc decided on Monday to offer his version of the facts of this fatal altercation.
“I barely touched him. I raised my hands to ask him to stop,” he said.
While backing up, the man would have tripped in the cement strip of the parking lot. He would then have taken “two or three steps back”, and the dog would have dragged his master to the ground by pulling on the leash.
“Even today, I hear the crack of Mr. Martineau’s head,” said the 39-year-old man.
Mr. Leblanc claims to have put his hands in front of him, “to stop the momentum” of Mr. Martineau who was walking towards him. He swears he only “pressed his fingers on the sternum” of the victim.
fear of dog
Pressed with questions by the Crown prosecutor, Me Marie-Claude Morin, Mr. Leblanc then justified his choice of words during the call to 911. If he said he had “pushed back” the man, he was referring to the action of stopping the actions of someone ‘un, like when you “reject a girl’s advances”.
And he didn’t want to “tamp down” the eldest so that he would “release”, but rather to prevent him from passing. Not knowing the dog, he saw it as a possible threat, he said.
The victim’s son, Gaston Martineau, explained that the dog, a black Labrador, was old and calm. His father always walked him on a leash. Moreover, according to the witness, the eldest did not walk quickly, considering his age.
The trial continues this week.