The day before his death on January 17, 2021, Raphael André had been treated at the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM), according to a police officer who testified Monday during the first day of the public inquiry of the coroner. The homeless Innu left the hospital on his own in the early evening to return to the La Porte Ouverte shelter which, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, closed its doors at 9 p.m. Raphael André was found dead the next morning in a chemical toilet at the corner of avenue du Parc and rue Milton.
Before the coroner Stéphanie Gamache, who chairs the public inquiry, the detective sergeant of the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), Alexandre Bertrand, related that the day before his death, Mr. André had started his day at the La Porte Ouverte center and that, around 2 p.m., he went to the convenience store located near the shelter.
According to testimonies collected, he was supported by another person when he entered the business. “He was very intoxicated at the time. There was an imbalance and there was a fall,” explained the police officer. According to the convenience store clerk, when Raphael André fell, he hit his head on the ground. As he was unable to get up, the paramedics intervened and took Raphael André to the CHUM. He left the hospital alone at 6:16 p.m.
The details surrounding this visit to the CHUM were not revealed on Monday, but witnesses who will be heard on Tuesday could provide more information on the care that Mr. André received at the hospital.
The 51-year-old man then went to the La Porte Ouvert shelter, where he fell asleep. As the organization closed its doors at 9 p.m. in order to comply with health directives, Raphael André had to leave the premises.
Alexandre Bertrand specified that the homeless man had been offered a place at PAQ-2, an emergency shelter which welcomes indigenous people. Raphael André would have refused to board the taxi charged with taking him there, said the police officer.
On the evening of January 16, a witness indicated that she wanted to use the chemical toilet around 9 p.m., but it was occupied by Raphael André. The next morning, the homeless man’s body was discovered there shortly before 8 a.m. According to the detective sergeant, there was no evidence to suggest an act of violence. Near the homeless man were a bottle and cans of beer, some full and others empty.
Several hospitalizations
According to his medical file, Raphael André has a “severe” alcohol consumption problem. He suffered from anxiety and had frontal damage possibly linked to old head trauma and his alcohol consumption, the coroner noted.
Raphael André could exhibit aggressive behavior on occasion. In 2020, he made death threats against an employee of the CHUM, where he was being treated, highlighted Alexandre Bertrand.
For years, Raphael André had been followed by the Addiction and Urban Medicine Service (STMU) at Notre-Dame hospital and had spent four hospital stays since April 2019. According to the occupational therapist who treated him, he had in the past expressed the wish to free himself from his dependence on alcohol.
A “very dark period”
The public inquiry taking place in Longueuil is expected to last two weeks and around fifty witnesses will be heard. Coroner Stéphanie Gamache warned that the public inquiry which aims to clarify the circumstances of Raphael André’s death would not focus on homelessness in its entirety. “There will always be a certain shadow regarding the death of Napa Raphael, since, unfortunately, he is no longer here to tell us about these last hours of life,” she explained.
“Napa Raphael is a vulnerable person due to various health issues that we will need to look at as part of this investigation. He also had no fixed address even though we were in a very dark period of our recent history during the first days of the curfew, one of the important measures of the health emergency linked to the pandemic. »