Suspect takes off after shooting at Montreal courthouse

A few years ago out of curiousity I stopped by that Courthouse to observe a motions calendar. I was very surprised that there were no metal detectors and I walked in with my knapsack. I had assumed that there would be one French speaking docket and one English speaking docket but that is not how it works. There was one motion practice docket and when I went into the Courtoom, which was impressively ergonomically and acoustically designed as compared with our mostly older state Courthouses, all of the arguments I heard were in French. The information desk informed me the docket could be in French or English, there was no way for them to know. It was funny but I was able to follow what was being argued in Court much more easily than any French conversation I would overhear on the street. After one of the arguments I approached the young female attorney who had argued the motion and I asked her in English if she was arguing the legal issue I thought she was arguing. She affirmed that she had in fact been arguing what I thought she was arguing.

I think it would be much easier to do violence in that Court than in any Court in the USA where security is far more austere.

MONTREAL — Montreal police are trying to track down a man who was injured when a courthouse guard opened fire on his car in an incident that stunned onlookers in Old Montreal Monday.

The man being sought, identified by the Montreal police as Evens Aaron Ambroise, 27, of Montreal, managed to have his left hand treated for a bullet wound at a Montreal hospital but somehow left the emergency room before officers arrived to arrest him, said Const. Olivier Lapointe.

Ambroise had a court date scheduled at the Montreal courthouse Monday in an assault case involving conjugal violence. Montreal police Const. Yannick Paradis said special constables asked a man to leave the courthouse, shortly after 11 a.m. Monday, because he was involved in a loud argument with a woman.

Two members of a Radio-Canada news team were standing outside the courthouse as the man and the woman exited it. They said the man appeared to be pushing the woman along as he yelled at her. At one point the man lifted the woman up by the back part of the top of her pants and carried her as they continued toward an alley at the side of the courthouse.

One of the Radio-Canada employees said he alerted special constables that the woman was in trouble and they rushed outside to investigate.

Yannick Champagne, a witness to the shooting, said the special constable who ended up injured, Donald St. Germain, shouted as he approached a blue Cavalier parked on the street. The driver refused to get out, pulled out of his parking space and the car struck St. Germain.

"He told the man to stop but the car moved toward him. (St. Germain) moved to the side and fired into the (driver side) window. The window shattered." Champagne said, adding only one shot was fired.

"I jumped. It was loud."

Champagne said he tried to help St. Germain with his injury and that he appeared to be in a great deal of pain. St. Germain was taken to a hospital minutes later.

Paradis said his injury is not considered life-threatening. The woman was not in the car as it drove away. She remained at the scene and gave a statement to investigators.

Shortly after the shooting, police found the blue Cavalier abandoned. The driver side window was shattered and blood could be seen on the steering wheel. A trail of blood could be seen extending from the car to a nearby sidewalk. The driver was nowhere to be found.

In January, Ambroise pleaded guilty to violating conditions of a release he was granted last year, while his assault case was pending, and was sentenced to a 40-day prison term. In 2003, he was sentenced to a 22-month prison term after he pleaded guilty in an armed robbery case.

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