Montreal murder: A last-minute decision put the father of two children on the trail of a killer

Late Tuesday That night before leaving for work, Mohamed Salah Belhaj kissed his two young children goodnight and decided he did not want to drive to work.

The 48-year-old father chose to take the bus instead. This was a decision that would put him in the path of a complete stranger who wanted to kill a police suspect, . For no apparent reason.

That fateful decision made Belhaj one of his three men shot this week in Montreal and Laval. Abdulla Shaikh, 26, a suspect in all three murders, was shot dead at a Saint Laurent motel on Thursday morning when his SWAT team of Montreal police tried to arrest him. it was done.

Sheikh explored the possible reasons behind killing Berhay and his two other victims—André Lemieux, 64, and Alexis Lévy-Clevier, 22. I hogged an explanation and died. The Sûreté du Québec states that he believed the Sheikh chose his victims at random.

Levi Crevier, who had just started working at a construction site, was shot dead Wednesday night in Laval.

Lemieux, the father of professional boxer David Lemieux, was murdered near his apartment on Boulevard Jules Poitras. In the Saint Laurent district an hour before Belhaj was shot.

"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mohsen Belhaj, brother of Mohammed Salah, told the Montreal Gazette on Friday. Because they are nearby, or in Tunisia, where they are from and where their mother lives. His brother's children, aged 6 and his 4, said they were only informed that their father had traveled to Tunisia and would be back.

His brother was killed while two men mourned the death of his father, who died on 29 July.

I have since been able to piece together some of my brother's final moments before he was shot late Tuesday night. Around 3pm he picked up his lunch box and kissed the children.He told them it was too late for them to wake up.They went to bed and he went to work. I did,” said Belhaj. "He was happy to take his car, but he decided: I don't feel like getting in the car. Just take the bus. It's a lot easier for me. I don't feel like driving.

Minutes after he left his home in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, Belhaj was shot at about 10:50 pm at an intersection near St-Benoit Park. He never got a job at Albert Prevost Hospital, a facility that treats patients with mental health problems.

Belhaj said his brother is part of the hospital's general staff and is highly regarded by his colleagues.

"That man was a simple man. He worked for children. There was nothing wrong with him. Everyone is shocked. All the medical staff I worked with came to see me (on Thursday) and said Salah was one of the nicest people on staff. could have happened,'" said Belhaj.

Sheikh has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and during a few days in July 2018, Pierre Heliot He died after a series of bizarre incidents occurred at both Trudeau and Mirabel airports. was charged with mischief.

He was found not criminally responsible for his actions and was ordered to live with his parents while he was being treated. After a few months, however, his family became so concerned about Sheikh's behavior that they asked him to be placed in an institution for people with mental health problems. }

He was released in early January 2021 and on 29 March this year the Commission d'examen des troubles mentaux, an administrative court, reviewed that decision. A psychiatrist told the court that Sheikh "still represents a significant risk to public safety because of his mental state." However, psychiatrists have recommended that Sheikh stay out of the hospital as long as he continues to comply with the conditions imposed on him in January 2021.

A serious risk to ”may also be a free person.

"This is the problem in this city. Whatever you do to innocent people, whatever the story, they will be put back on the streets. has been closed," Belhaj said. “The government and its agencies knew he was a risk. They knew the man was in serious trouble.

``I mean, he is mentally ill and there is a I'm not just speaking on behalf of my brother, logically it could have happened to any of us...it could happen to you, go to work and you I understand his right to live (as a free man), but if he threatens our security, we as a society will be much better off than we are now. As a father of three children, do you think it's okay to send one of them to milk?"

Belhaj also expressed sympathy for Shaihk's family. said.

"He has his father and mother behind him," he said. "They also lost a son."

pcherry@postmedia.com

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