Aggressor in park video declared NCR
The man caught on video as he attacked a Hasidic man in front of his kids last month has been declared not criminally responsible.
The report says briefly that the parents of Sergio Yanes Preciado had tried to get him help for his psychiatric issues in the weeks before the attack, but police felt he was not dangerous. Since when do police make psychiatric assessments?
DavidH 10:29 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
Police in Quebec are the only ones with the power to apply law P-38 which allows forcing someone to undergo psychiatric care without a court order. The criteria are immediate threat of self-harm or harm to others. The important part here is ‘immediate’ meaning in the next foreseeable minute or so (not, say, ‘these days’). It’s a really weird system that even the police are not confortable with. It puts the power to act with the people that know the least about the patient and have the least amount of relevant training. In other juridictions, psychiatrists, doctors, etc. have that power, not here. P-38 is the equivalent of Nevada’s Legal 2000 or California’s 5150.
What this news tells you is that the parents started to have reasons to be worried and called 911 at some point but they were not far enough along in the process to have gotten an ‘ordonnance de soins’ from the court. Often happens when family hopes the patient can still be convince to get help willingly. Going to court is taxing on people already dealing with these issues.
MarcG 10:44 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
Quoting the Mayor of Côte Saint-Luc when the story was first reported:
“[The attack] reflects something deeply wrong in our society. Hatred of Jewish people is not a Jewish problem. It is a societal problem. The kind of derangement needed to attack a father beside his young daughter grows from long-standing prejudice against Jewish people. It is supercharged by a news media that too often parrots propaganda by Hamas without due diligence and a social media environment that pushes conspiracies and lies. This toxic mix leads to marches where extremist rhetoric is spread and otherwise decent people learn to hate…”
That’s a long way from smoking too much weed and getting paranoid about energy fields. Will he issue a new “oopsies!” statement about the mental health crisis and need to fund systems that improve support and outcomes?
Ian 10:46 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
When I had to get a family member with dementia brough to hospital care against his will, the first responder was an ambulance. When the paramedics confirmed that he would not come voluntarily, they assessed his medical condition and determined that he was not in immediate danger. The next procedural step was they called the police. The police determined that he was not a danger to himself or others. They tehn called a social team who did a psych assessment, and established that there was confusion and a history of dementia, and agreed to authorize his involuntary intake. The police then read him his rights and explained the situation, and he went to the hospital with the paramedics.
All this to say there are specific procedures that are followed and while the police can make an assessment it is only under very specific conditions. Their main role is to determine criminality and/ or secure a scene.
Kate 11:31 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
Thanks everyone for their thoughts on this.
It’s worth noting that the item says “Les deux psychiatres indiquent d’ailleurs que l’attaque n’a pas de motif religieux, contrairement à ce que les policiers suggéraient dans le rapport lié à cet événement.”
walkerp 15:43 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
I agree this is not a hate crime and the mayor of St-Luc needs to be impeached but I also would still factor anti-semitism into the attack. I mean I don’t think it was random that he picked this man.
Kate 16:34 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
Preciado’s attention may have been caught by the other man’s distinctive outfit and hair and beard arrangements. CBC radio just reported that Preciado didn’t express any antisemitic attitudes.
MarcG 17:03 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
The article says he was triggered by perceiving an “aggressive movement” by the victim.
Kate 18:57 on 2025-09-16 Permalink
If the shrinks are correct that Preciado was in a state of psychosis, it’s fruitless to surmise what he may have perceived.
MarcG 07:07 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
The article implies that it was the shrinks who provided that information.
walkerp 08:58 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
It’s only tangentially a question of what he did or didn’t surmise. It’s that anti-semitism (and racism in general) is on the rise in our culture these days and it drives behaviour. If I were a visibly Jewish person, hearing that the psychiatrist said he was in a state of psychosis would do very little to reduce the fear I would feel about future attacks like this.
So basically, anti-semitism is still very much at play in this story.
Ian 09:51 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
But it’s literally not. Despite pressure from the police, the Jewish community, and local political interference, the guy was legally assessed, found to be psychotic and reacting to perceived aggression, and the assessment clearly states that there was no religious element. How much clearer can it be?
To a hammer everything looks like a nail.
Kate 09:59 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
I wonder whether Preciado was acting strangely in the park, so the Hasidic man reasonably moved to gather his kids to get them away from the crazy man – which in turn, may have caught Preciado’s attention.
Ian 10:44 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
As long as we’re playing “what if” and want to make up motivation, what if the Hassidic man gathereed his children nearer because Preciado is black? I mean, a long as we’re making assumptions about prevalent forms of racism and all.
GC 12:25 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
That would be racist, Ian, but how would it be relevant??? The attacker’s state of mind is considered by the legal system, but I don’t think the victim’s is.
Ian 13:30 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
If it gives a clue as to what the attacker perceived as provocation it’s no less relevant than assuming the attacker was motivated by racism – which it appears he wasn’t but some aren’t willing to let it go.
walkerp 15:57 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
Yeah, like the victims…
Ian 18:51 on 2025-09-17 Permalink
Considering no words were exchanged I think I’ll take the psychiatric assessment over the victim’s assumption s about why they were attacked.
Just because the victim is Hassidic is no more of an explanation for this incident than that the attacker was black.