2023-09-27 20:03:59
Retired boxer David Lemieux would never have imagined that his father might be shot dead by a young schizophrenic who had embarked on a killing spree, he emotionally testified at the coroner’s public inquest.
• Read also: Three men killed at random in Montreal and Laval: the suspect in possession of two homemade firearms
• Read also: Three men killed at random: the suspect goes to the zoo in Ontario before returning to kill his last victim in Laval
“The police told me that my father was shot… I was not ready for this fight, I was not prepared,” said David Lemieux this Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse.
Soberly, the retired boxer recounted memories of his father André-Fernand Lemieux, 64, who was shot dead in August 2022 by a young schizophrenic who had embarked on a murderous madness. Armed with homemade ghost guns, he opened fire on three people in two days, before being traced and shot dead in a motel in the Saint-Laurent borough.
Aerial view of the Pierre motel, in the Saint-Laurent borough, in Montreal, where Abdulla Shaikh, who allegedly gratuitously shot three men in 24 hours in the greater metropolitan area, was killed by police inside a room , Thursday August 4, 2022. QMI AGENCE
In addition to André-Fernand Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj, 48, and Alex Levis-Crevier, 22, were also killed. All had been targeted at random.
Tribute felt
Following this affair which shocked Quebec, the coroner launched an investigation, the public hearings of which began this week. David Lemieux, who announced his retirement shortly following the tragedy, briefly testified to pay tribute to his father.
“He didn’t deserve that… my last memory of him is him holding my son… It was beautiful,” he said with emotion, while calling on people to take in their arms those they love.
André-Fernand Lemieux, the father of David Lemieux Photo taken from Facebook, David Lemieux
At the same time, David Lemieux took the opportunity to thank the authorities who diligently investigated. And that even if the suspect Abdulla Shaikh was killed during the police intervention, an investigation is being carried out so that this type of event does not happen once more.
“It’s heartening to see how seriously it’s being taken,” he said.
Visibly touched, the coroner Me Géhane Kamel assured him that the memory of his father “was not going to fade away”, and that everything would be done to prevent this type of tragedy in the future.
“The memory of my father is anchored in me forever,” concluded the retired boxer.
A “violent” suspect
In the followingnoon, it was the turn of the suspect’s ex-spouse to address the coroner. Marllely Florez Serna thus said that Abdulla Shaikh might be psychologically, financially and even physically violent to the point where she had been afraid of him for the last year.
The coroner’s public inquiry led by Me Géhane Kamel begins at the Montreal courthouse, on September 25, 2023, into the circumstances which led to the murders of three men randomly targeted in August 2022 by a 26-year-old suspect, Abdulla Shaikh, who struggles with mental health issues. In this photo: Suspect Abdulla Shaikh arrives at a zoo in Toronto, Ontario on August 3, 2022. SCREENSHOT OF EXHIBITION Courtesy of the Coroner’s Office
“Towards others, it was more [de la violence] physical, she said shyly. If someone passed him on the highway, he wanted to take a stick and hit them. He already wanted to spit on [une caissière] at Tim Hortons because it was complicated. »
The one who had filed a complaint once morest him had also ended their relationship which lasted almost three years because of his aggressiveness: “I had also moved away from my family and I realized that it was not going well. not. »
Coroner Me Géhane Kamel thanked her for her testimony, saying that she was “one of the only people who knew him outside of his family. »
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