Media have various reactions to this week’s triple shootings.
TVA says the city suffered 36 hours of terror, but also interviewed the dead suspect’s brother who completely refuses to believe that Abdulla Shaikh could have carried out the killings. They also look into the matter of Shaikh having been freed from psychiatric confinement despite concerns about the risk: this latter piece also has photos and identification of the three victims and a timeline of Shaikh’s psychiatric history.
La Presse talks to the head of the Quebec order of criminologists, who says the treatment and followup of those found not criminally responsible due to mental illness is not well handled. They also tell us that public safety minister Geneviève Guilbault will be having words with the police chiefs.
Updating: Radio-Canada says Shaikh had threatened to kill workers in the psychiatric unit at Laval’s Cité‑de‑la‑Santé, and CTV says he used an illegally obtained firearm. François Legault wants to know why he was freed when he was thought to be a public risk.
The Gazette and TVA both talked to Mohsen Belhaj, the brother of one of the murdered men. Mohamed Salah Belhaj’s decision to take the bus that night instead of driving turned out to be a fateful one, as he was shot dead at a bus stop. Radio‑Canada talked to a sister and a friend of the youngest victim, Alex Levis-Crevier, shot while skateboarding in Laval.
Abdulla Shaikh’s lawyer is called François Legault. (I heard this on the radio and thought the news reader had made a slip, but it’s true.) He was not best pleased to hear his namesake say on TV “Je suis content qu’on se soit débarrassé de cet individu-là.”
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