A Montrealer accused of attempted murder with a knife on a victim chosen at random in the street in addition to being suspected of having committed two other similar crimes will be evaluated by psychiatrists from the Philippe-Pinel Institute.
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“Given the full clinical picture and the objective gravity of the offence, the issue of criminal liability might be raised by the defense,” a report regarding Benjamin Webster reads.
Webster, 18, was back at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday to be assessed by psychosocial emergency experts. And as a result of this expertise, doubts have been raised regarding his mental state during his alleged crime which occurred last June.
That evening, a man was walking near Paul-Séguin Park in LaSalle when Webster allegedly came from behind to stab him in the back of the neck. Seriously injured, the victim was sent to the hospital, while the suspect fled.
“The motive for the crime remains, for the moment, unknown,” Montreal police said in a press release.
Two other injured
However, if Webster was arrested and charged with attempted murder last week, investigators suspect him for two other similar crimes that occurred in the same area.
It is that on May 31, a man who was waiting for the bus following leaving a training center was arrested by an unknown person, who immediately stabbed him in the side before fleeing. And on July 7, it was another man, sitting on a park bench, who was stabbed in the neck.
“The victim tries to flee and is stabbed once more, this time in the back,” police said. The suspect fled on foot. A witness would have seen him shortly following on a bicycle. »
In both cases, the investigation is continuing and it is therefore not excluded that Webster faces new charges.
In the meantime, he will meet with experts in forensic psychiatry, who will look into his case. The results of the evaluation should be known within a month.
