A father in mourning wants better gun control

Photo courtesy
Michel Leroux
Father of the victim

Magalie Lapointe

Monday, 16 October, 2017 23:18

UPDATE
Monday, 16 October, 2017 23:18

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The father of a policeman murdered by a man who had already been confiscate his firearms implores Ottawa to improve the control of weapons on people that are violent or suicidal.

A few months before he is killed by two bullets in the back, the police officer Thierry Leroux himself was gone to carry firearms to Anthony Raymond Papatie. The latter was known to have suicidal thoughts and his weapons had been confiscated during the hospital stay.

Thierry Leroux, was murdered on February 13, 2016 when he was working in the reserve of Lac-Simon, Abitibi.

His father, Michel Leroux, now wants to devote all his energy to strengthen the accessibility to guns.

“I can only try to change things, otherwise, I will have the feeling of having abandoned Thierry a second time. The first is so heavy that I can not look at myself in the mirror if I let them fall without trying, ” said, weeping, Michel Leroux.

Letter

On Monday, he was sent to the minister of public Safety, Ralph Goodale, a letter in which he demands a better control of guns.

“It is necessary to prevent the possession of weapons by those who express or who have expressed suicidal, violent, threatening, or associated with a mental illness, regardless of the nature of the latter. The authorities would never have allowed the killer of our son to get the guns in his possession “, he writes in his letter, which The Journal has obtained a copy.

According to Statistics Canada, 92 % of police officers who die in the course of their duties are killed by a bullet. A figure much too high for the father of the former policeman.

He asks that ” special efforts should be made to better treat the whole range of mental illnesses, especially in underprivileged areas, in the presence of drug and alcohol abuse “.

Michel Leroux will be retiring in five weeks to take care full time of the foundation launched this year in memory of his son. It will also be heard in Ottawa and Quebec city.