Quebec’s health-care system failed the man who went on a shooting spree in eastern Montreal that left two people dead two years ago, his lawyer says.
“What we are concerned about is that he receives the treatment he needs” in the future, lawyer Kevin Morasse told reporters at the Montreal courthouse after Frédérick Gingras pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and an assault charge.
“He is a person who suffered for years. It is sad to say but, in my opinion, there were alarms that went off beforehand and for one reason or another he was dropped by the system,” he said.
Gingras sounded like someone who had just woken up when Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau asked if he understood what he was pleading guilty to.
Among those on hand at the plea hearing were people who were close to Chantal Cyr, one of the two victims killed on the night of Dec. 4, 2016.
Gingras was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The Crown accept his guilty pleas to the reduced charges.
Prosecutor Catherine Perreault asked Charbonneau to hold off making a decision on two attempted-murder charges Gingras still faces so evidence can be presented on whether he should be found not criminally responsible on those two counts.
Charbonneau agreed to hear the evidence on April 4.
A Montreal police officer walks past the site in Pointe-aux-Trembles where Chantal Cyr was fatally shot in December 2016.
Perrault said she and Morasse will ask that Gingras be sentenced to a 19-year prison term after the judge makes her decision on the attempted-murder charges.
The prosecutor read a long description of what happened on the night of the shooting spree, and an equally long list of Gingras’s mental health problems.
Near the end of November 2016, Gingras was homeless but was staying with a friend — James Jardin — at an apartment in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
Hours before the shooting, Gingras went to see his grandmother and an aunt in the hope of living with them, but they turned him down.
Gingras returned to Jardin’s apartment at around 7 p.m. Five others were present, including a friend of Jardin’s named Samuel Labine.
“The witnesses who were present describe (Gingras) as ‘bizarre’ and ‘in his own bubble’ — he said little and paced around the apartment,” Perreault read.
“Some witnesses said he was talking to the walls and making grand gestures. He said a few times that he wasn’t well in his head.”
At around 10:45 p.m., Gingras and Jardin were in a bedroom looking over Jardin’s shotgun when Gingras used it to shoot him. Jardin cried out in pain and Gingras shot him a second time, in the throat.
As Jardin was dying of his wounds, Gingras approached Labine and pulled the trigger twice but nothing happened. Labine and the others fled the apartment before he could reload.
Gingras grabbed a belt equipped with more than 20 cartridges and headed outside toward a gas station. That is where he spotted Cyr, 49. She was seated in her vehicle waiting for her daughter to finish work.
Gingras shot Cyr in the throat and stole her vehicle. Minutes later he crashed into a lamppost and abandoned the car.
He headed to a nearby home and tried to shoot a woman inside, but she and her children managed to escape.
Gingras rang the bell of another house where Gérald Lalonde was watching television. When he went to answer the door, a shot was fired through the lock and a projectile struck his foot.
Gingras forced the door open, but Lalonde pushed the rifle aside as it fired. Pellets struck Lalonde in the arm and stomach. Gingras then ordered Lalonde to give him the keys to his SUV.
Lalonde was able to call 911 as Gingras drove away. The Montreal police tracked him down as he travelled toward the South Shore, but lost him during a brief chase where he hit an estimated speed of 175 km/h.
On Highway 30, Gingras blew a tire, pulled over and was finally arrested as he walked along the side of the highway.
The same document included a long history of Gingras’s mental health problems. He had seen psychiatrists as a child and was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs at age 13.
In 2014, he was hospitalized four times. In one instance, a court order forced him to stay at the Charles-Lemoyne Hospital for 75 days for evaluation.
There, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. His psychosis was found to be brought on by frequent use of hard drugs like cocaine.
Late in 2016, he was ordered to undergo another psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he could be found criminally responsible in an unrelated case. A psychiatrist determined he could. Gingras was given an appointment to receive antipsychotic medication by injection on Nov. 30, 2016. He never showed up.
Following his arrest for the homicides, Gingras underwent treatment at the Philippe Pinel Institute but his hallucinations persisted.
As recently as January, he was found to be experiencing hallucinations despite being treated with strong antipsychotic medication and having been off drugs like cocaine since his arrest.