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Experts need more time to determine if Laval bus driver is criminally responsible for daycare crash

Two children were killed when a city bus was driven into the side of a daycare centre Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.  (Steve Rompré/Radio-Canada - image credit)
Two children were killed when a city bus was driven into the side of a daycare centre Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (Steve Rompré/Radio-Canada - image credit)

Experts have not yet completed the psychiatric evaluation for Pierre Ny St-Amand, the man accused of intentionally ramming a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que., killing two children in February.

Dr. Kim Bédard-Charette, a psychiatrist at the Philippe-Pinel institute, where St-Amand is being detained, asked the court for more time to determine whether St-Amand was criminally responsible for his actions.

"Given the nature of the crime and the complexity of the clinical situation, additional assessments were requested, including a psychological assessment which unfortunately could not be completed," Bédard-Charette said in a letter submitted at the Laval courthouse on Tuesday.

Bédard-Charette said St-Amand has been co-operating with the assessment.

A Quebec Superior Court judge granted Bédard-Charette's request and rescheduled a hearing for St-Amand to April 26.

The evaluation is to determine whether St-Amand was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the crash that made him incapable of understanding what he was doing or of knowing that it was wrong.

Ultimately, it will be up to the court to decide whether St-Amand is not criminally responsible.

On Feb. 8, St-Amand, a Laval transit bus driver, was at the wheel of a bus that plowed into the Garderie Éducative de Sainte-Rose at around 8:30 a.m., just as parents were dropping off their children.

Two young children, Jacob Gauthier and Maëva David, died in the crash and six others were injured.

St-Amand is facing two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm.