Prosecutor reveals how formulas found in a notebook when Ngarukiye was arrested indicate he might have been planning to build an explosive.
A Quebec Superior Court judge will decide on Friday whether Ali Ngarukiye, the man who tried to kill a Montreal police officer and then killed his cellmate following his arrest, should undergo an assessment to determine if he can be declared a dangerous or long-term offender.
Crown prosecutor Jasmine Guillaume made the request to Justice François Dadour at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday that Ngarukiye, 24, undergo the potentially lengthy process for his attempt to kill Montreal police Constable Sanjay Vig even if he already received an automatic life sentence on May 14 for the second-degree murder of his cellmate André Lapierre at the Rivière-des-Prairies Detention Centre.
On Jan. 28, 2021, Ngarukiye attacked Vig from behind while he was on duty and issuing tickets to motorists. He struck the constable on the back of his head with a metal bar and disarmed him. He used Vig’s firearm to fire off at least one shot that travelled through the sleeve of Vig’s jacket, but did not strike him.
Vig assumed the person who attacked him was the last motorist he issued a ticket to. Vig’s assumption led to the wrongful arrest of Mamadi Fara Camara, a man who ended up spending several days behind bars before the Montreal police realized they had the wrong man.
Ngarukiye was arrested in Ontario two months later. While he was detained, he murdered Lapierre on June 17, 2021 inside the tiny cell they shared in Rivière-des-Prairies. His period of parole ineligibility was recently set at 15 years.
On Tuesday, Guillaume noted how Ngarukiye is now appealing the jury’s verdict in the murder case as one of the reasons why the Crown is seeking to have him undergo an assessment by a mental health expert to determine if he can be sentenced as a dangerous or long-term offender.
If he is declared a dangerous offender, he could receive an indefinite sentence. If he is declared a long-term offender, Dadour can order that surveillance conditions be imposed on Ngarukiye for a period as long as 10 years after his period of parole ineligibility expires.
“It was a brutal attack with multiple weapons used,” Guillaume said of the attempt to kill Vig. “Shooting at a police officer when there were citizens close by puts it in (the dangerous or long-term offender category).”
The prosecutor noted that Hassan Habib, Ngarukiye’s imam, revealed to investigators that Ngarukiye told him months before the attack on Vig that he wanted to kill police officers because he felt Canada was a country of “non-believers.”
To support the Crown’s request, the prosecutor submitted a report prepared by a chemist who concluded that Ngarukiye might have been planning to build an explosive. This was based on notes found in a notebook seized when Ngarukiye was arrested. The contents of the notebook were not entered into evidence during his trial.
“I think the real element here is the writing in the book. It’s the formulas that are evaluated by (the chemist) that are written in a notebook that was found on (Ngarukiye).
“He had thoughts of jihad, as referred to by Mr. Habib, and extreme thoughts about being able to take whatever he wants from this society because (he believed) Canada is a country of non-believers.”
Defence lawyer Sharon Sandiford argued that the conditions that would be imposed on Ngarukiye once he is granted parole while serving his life sentence would be sufficient when it comes to managing his potential risk to society in the distant future.
“The law is always (about) common sense,” Sandiford said. We have the reality of the sentence being served. You can’t ignore that. This is not a reasonable request from the Crown.”