Hospital worker ID'd as bystander killed by police

By CBC News - June 8, 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/06/08/mont...

A 36-year-old hospital worker was on his way to work - possibly on his bicycle - when he was fatally shot by Montreal police who opened fire on a homeless man they were pursuing in the downtown core, according to details released Wednesday.

Patrick Limoges was on his way to work at St. Luc Hospital on Tuesday morning when he was killed by a stray bullet, after police fired on the homeless man, Mario Hamel, who they had been pursuing near the corner of St-Denis and Ste-Catherine streets. Hamel also died.

Officers had confronted Hamel on St. Denis while Limoges was on the other side of the street, police said Wednesday.

There are reports the hospital worker may have been on a bicycle when he was shot. A bike was found near the spot where he fell.

Most employees at the hospital didn't want to publicly speak to media, but said the death is shocking and that they feel any one of them could have been the one killed.

"It's very hard on everyone. We're all asking why, and did police do their job correctly?" said Odette Caouillette, who works at the hospital.

At the time of the shooting, police were after Hamel, 40, who they say was brandishing a knife.

The incident began when a police officer approached a man who was allegedly disturbing the peace and overturning garbage cans around 6:40 a.m. ET Tuesday.

Hamel had been living at the Maison Eugénie-Bernier, a shelter for homeless people run by the Welcome Hall Mission on St. Denis.

Officials there say he had been receiving psychological help and was able to get himself off the street.

However, one of the mission's co-ordinators said his mental health problems seemed to be getting worse.

"Up until about a few weeks ago there was no problem, but then he realized he wasn't doing so well. We tried to help him see a doctor, but he refused", said Lise Ouellette, who added that Hamel was "never physically aggressive" with the staff or clients.

"He had made some progress," the mission's director general Aubin Boudreau said. "It's a shame his life ended like this."

Provincial police are investigating the actions of the Montreal police.

It's not the first time this year that city officers have been investigated after fatal shooting incidents.

In January and February, the force was involved in three incidents over three weeks, two of them resulting in deaths.

When asked Wednesday about the latest incident, Quebec's Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said there is no pattern of police being overzealous with their firearms.

Dutil said that statistically, there are very few shooting incidents each year involving police.