Children are taken to a warming bus as parents wait for news after a bus crashed into a day care center in Laval, Quebec, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
By Rob Gillies
Police have charged a bus driver with first-degree murder after he drove his vehicle at a high speed into a day care center north of Montreal, killing two children, injuring six and leaving authorities searching for a motive.
Witnesses say that after Wednesday's crash, the 51-year-old driver, identified as Pierre Ny St-Amand, stepped out of the bus, stripped off his clothes and started screaming.
“He was just yelling; there were no words coming out of his mouth,” Hamdi Benchaabane said.
A neighbor who ran to the center in Laval, Quebec, said she saw children screaming and crying and watched a mother collapse.
St-Amand is facing nine charges including first degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm. He appeared in court via video late Wednesday from a hospital room and will remain detained.
A senior Canadian government official said the crash was not a terrorist act and did not pose a threat to national security. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The driver had worked for Societe de transport de Laval for 10 years. He had no criminal history and a clean work record, police officials and Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer said at two separate news conferences.
“As of now, we don’t know the motive for the crime," police spokesperson Erika Landry said.
Boyer said "there is a theory that it was an intentional act, but that remains to be confirmed by the investigation,
Laval Police Chief Pierre Brochet said authorities are interviewing the driver.
The dead children were both 4 years old, identified in the documents only by their initials. Six children were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, Brochet said.
The day care is located at the end of a driveway off a cul-de-sac. There is a bus stop on the cul-de-sac, but the driver would have had to veer off the road and head down the long driveway to hit the building.
“There were no signs of skidmarks ... He went directly into the day care,” said another eyewitness, Mario Sirois.
Sirois' wife, Ginette Lamoureux, the neighbor who ran into the day care shortly after the crash, said the driver was hysterical.
“His eyes were like popping out,” she said.
Benchaabane said he and three parents had to strike the driver in order to subdue him, before police cuffed him.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his office was “following the situation closely.”
Members of Parliament observed a moment of silence in Ottawa.
Wearing a hospital gown and in a bed, St-Amand was alert but unresponsive during his video appearance as the judge and his lawyer tried to get him to speak. He only nodded his head a few times when asked by his lawyer, Julien Lespérance Hudon, if he understood he was appearing in a courtroom.
The case returns to court on Feb. 17.
Neighbors described the suspect as a quiet, pleasant father of two young girls. One man, Thanh-Ry Tran, said his family got together with the suspect’s family a few times a year, and their wives would sometimes help each other in picking up or dropping off children. He said the suspect had never shown signs of distress.
Another neighbor, Nader Abou-Said, said he would exchange pleasant greetings with the suspect, and would often see him playing with his daughters in the backyard.
“How can you go out and play with your kids and then go kill kids?” he said.
U.S. stocks closed Tuesday's session near session highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 350 points, after rising more than 400 points at its session high. Shares were also impacted positively by optimism around peace talks in Ukraine. Nancy Prial, Co-Chief Executive Officer & Senior Portfolio Manager of Essex Investment Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Food, paper, and plastic are known to be major factors when it comes to America's trash; but furniture is high on that list, as well. According to the EPA, furniture makes up twelve million tons of waste in landfills every year. It's a problem that one online furniture store is trying to solve. Alpay Koralturk, Founder & CEO of Kaiyo, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Bitcoin surged to its highest level on Monday since January 2nd. The gains also come after a late Sunday rally for the cryptocurrency, when it surpassed the key price of $45,000, and also turned positive for 2022. Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Fund, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what is behind the recent rallies for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Founder and CEO of Capital Postal & Mail Box Service, Takisha Clark, joined Cheddar News to talk about being the first black woman to own a postal franchise, the obstacles she faced when launching her business, and how she overcame them. “I ran into just dealing with lack of resources, dealing with just being a black woman, just trying to become this entrepreneur and be inspiring to others, so it's been a journey," she said. "It's been hard, and I've just been maneuvering through the cracks."
Actress, model, author, and entrepreneur Brooke Shields has joined organic CBD company Prospect Farms as its chief brand officer. She joined CEO Brad Tipper to talk to Cheddar News about her coming aboard. Shield’s explained how her involvement with Prospect Farms stemmed from a discussion about her lack of sleep. “I started learning about the positive effects and the different ways that CBD can be introduced to a person's life, and I was just sort of fascinated because it all feels so new to me," she said.
The co-writers and directors of the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert joined Cheddar News to discuss their new sci-fi action-comedy starring Michelle Yeoh now in select theaters. The filmmakers talked about bringing the multiverse-traversing plot to life, as well as getting the chance to tell an Asian American story following in the footsteps of successful films like "Crazy Rich Asians." "We like to make films that we want to see on the screen, and even if that means they don't exist or even that means that the world might not be ready for them," said Kwan. "That's what we're chasing. Luckily for us, the movie took so long to make that by the time it was finished or by the time now that it's done, so much has changed."
Paul Mundell, Executive Director of the American Service Dog Access Coalition, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss why emotional support, therapy, and service dogs are important.
Plastic has become the face of global pollution. To date, humans have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of it. Once discarded, plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Instead, it fragments into microplastics smaller than the size of a sesame seed and further into nanoplastics.
These tiny particles of plastic end up everywhere, deep in the ice of Antarctic glaciers or even inside our bodies.
So how much plastic is inside of us? And what does it mean for our health? Let’s find out.
Catching you up on what you Need to Know on Mar 29, 2022, with updates on the snow squall in Pennsylvania that caused a pileup killing three, the teacher's strike in Sacramento heading into week two, Walmart no longer selling tobacco products in select stores, and what meme stocks are up to this week.
