Laval daycare bus crash investigation: what comes next?

Within hours of the fatal bus crash at a Laval daycare on Wednesday 51-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and more. Nine charges total for the driver.

“We all saw the picture, a lot of people said it was a deliberate act. ‘This is not an accident.’ Was he able to put his plan into execution? And probably those elements were already available to investigators. That’s why these charges were probably given,” said Kwadwo Yeboah, criminal defense attorney.

“When you look at these pictures and you see where the daycare is, you deliberately have to have driven your car there.”

If found guilty of first-degree murder, St-Amand would face 25 years in federal prison before he can request parole. Yeboah says the types of charges are not something we often see in Quebec.

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“First-degree murder, it’s the highest crime somebody can commit in the criminal code. It means somebody actually sat down, plan a murder and not only planned it, but actually put the plan into execution,” explained Yeboah.

According to Yeboah, St-Amand’s case may also require input from experts and a psychiatric evaluation.

“It will probably be a case a battle of experts, right? That is when the experts will come and testify in court,” he explained. “The judge will probably use experts to come and explain to the court or at least to inform the court about his state of mind.

“The judge can pronounce that he’s not criminally responsible because he wasn’t in his right state of mind at that moment.”

Former Montreal police inspector André Durocher says collision experts will also play an important part in the case.

“They’ll be able to see if the vehicle was accelerating, decelerating. The testimony of the witnesses, the impact,” said Durocher.

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“Yesterday, there was some evidence gathered from the scene. But, you know, they have they’ll probably need some lab results and everything. So, there’s a lot of information that still needs to be confirmed as we speak.”

Yeboah added several elements will have to be investigated. “Did he leave a note? Did he have a plan to his house? Did he have a route? Did he sit down and Google around the daycare? Did he plan? It’s really during the investigation that all this would come up there, probably a search warrant at his house to see what information they can find interviews with him and with that, to be able to prove their case.”

St-Amand’s next court date is scheduled for Feb. 17.