“They were completely traumatized. They were staring blankly. It is in these words heavy with meaning that the first police officer who intervened on the evening of the murder of Patricia Sirois described the state in which he found the two children of the victim who we hear in a heartbreaking 911 call.
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The toddlers were in the back seat of Patricia Sirois’ Ford Edge when Martin Lévesque fired. The six bullets hit the mother, killing her as her two-year-old daughter and one-year-old son looked on.
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Photo provided by the court
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Courtesy picture
The car continued on its way for 900 meters, until another neighbor managed to stop it. Upon his arrival, agent Guillaume Belleau-Boutin has no idea of the drama that has taken place.
A call came in to 911, we heard the cries of children there, but when he approaches the car after talking with the wife of Martin Lévesque, who was nearby, the policeman does not hear anything.
“I saw the children, but I hadn’t heard any screams, any tears,” testified the policeman, suffocated by emotion at that precise moment.
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Pierre Paul Biron
“They were completely traumatized”, adds the agent, specifying to have gone to the little one by telling her that he was the police. On the audio tape of the 911 call presented in court on Wednesday, we hear the agent reassuring the little one.
“We’re here to help you my dear.”
“When I told her that, she held out her arms to me as if it were my own child,” dropped the agent Belleau-Boutin, still shaken.
If they were paralyzed when the police arrived, the 911 call from Patricia Sirois’ car presented to the jury makes it possible to grasp the panic that the two children felt in the moments following the murder of their mother.
In a heart wrenching soundtrack, the two children can be heard screaming in distress for the fifteen minutes that the call lasts.
“What is mum doing,” the girl says in what we understand to be seconds after the gunshots.
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Photo provided by the court
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Photo provided by the court
Death cries follow, interspersed with sobs which alone describe the horror of the scene that is playing out under the innocent eyes of the two little ones.
Listening to the extract brought tears to three or four jurors, the others being just as shaken, but trying as best they could to hold back their tears. Judge François Huot has also decreed a break after this difficult moment in the trial scheduled for 5 weeks.
The call came from Patricia Sirois’ cell phone, connected to her vehicle’s Bluetooth. If we never hear the victim, we hear the shooter’s wife, Guylaine Laflamme, screaming for long minutes.
Intoxicated according to the lawsuit, the woman would have tried to stop the victim’s car which continued to drive at low speed on rue Marlène and rue Francine after the shots.
Claiming the police by repeatedly insulting the emergency dispatchers, Guylaine Laflamme also yells at the children.
“Stop shouting chalice of tabarnak”, we hear him shout on the extract which obviously tore tears from the relatives of the victim present. Ms. Laflamme was eventually arrested later that evening for obstructing police work and assault, two charges to which she pleaded guilty.
And it was finally another neighbor who managed to stop the vehicle.
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Photo provided by the court
In a remarkable calm for the circumstances, she manages to appease the children.
“You are correct eh my love? […] It’s going to be fine, ”launches the woman in a reassuring tone, before making a final statement by glancing at Patricia Sirois.
“She is dead.”
Martin Lévesque admitted at the start of the trial on Monday to having fired the fatal shots that hit Patricia Sirois. Police officers who testified on Wednesday said the man also made a confession the night of the crime.
At that time, he claimed that Patricia Sirois had wanted to hit his wife with his car.
“I was the one who shot her because she was going for my girlfriend. I’m the culprit,” he told police officer Audrey Leclerc, a hypothesis that has never been demonstrated, however, according to the claims of the crown prosecutor, Me Matthieu Rochette.
photo-source position-absolute" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Photo provided by the court
Martin Lévesque will instead plead not criminally responsible for mental disorders. The defense of the ex-military affirms that he would suffer from a syndrome of post-traumatic stress linked to his missions abroad.
2023-05-03 22:04:54
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