‘IT WAS ME AT THE MOSQUE EARLIER’

A suicidal Bissonnette called 911 after massacre

• Minutes earlier, he had killed six men, three of whom he executed with bullets to the head as they lay injured. Five more men were being treated for gunshot wounds at the Quebec City mosque where he had just fired 48 rounds from his Glock handgun.

Inside his father’s car, parked on the side of a highway about 10 kilometres from the mosque where first responders and police were tending to his victims, Alexandre Bissonnette told a 911 operator he would never hurt a fly.

“I’ve never hurt anybody,” he told operator Simon Labrecque, after saying: “It was me who was at the mosque earlier.”

Over the course of a 50-minute conversation, Bissonnette repeatedly asked the operator if anyone at the mosque was injured.

A recording of the Jan. 29, 2017, call was played at Bissonnette’s sentencing hearing in Quebec City on Thursday. The prosecution spent the day introducing as evidence photographs, autopsy and ballistics reports.

Since Bissonnette pleaded guilty last month to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder, he did not have a trial. The evidence is being presented in court for the first time.

The maximum sentence he could face is 150 years — consecutive 25-year sentences for each of the six murders. His lawyer has said he will recommend a sentence of 25 years. During the 911 call, an emotional Bissonnette appeared worried police would shoot him.

Labrecque advised Bissonnette police would not shoot if he stayed calm, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his phone.

Crying, Bissonnette repeatedly told Labrecque he wanted to kill himself. He said he was going to walk into the woods and shoot himself in the head.

“I think I’m just going to kill myself.”

Labrecque, who had been a 911 operator for just two years, tried to keep the killer composed throughout the 50 minutes, distracting him by talking about school, books and hobbies.

The operator tried to soothe him, asking him to stay on the line and to try to control his breathing.

Bissonnette repeatedly told Labrecque that he wanted to leave the car and surrender. “I’m sick of this,” Bissonnette says several times.

Labrecque told him police needed time to set up a perimeter around him and wanted to make sure everything was done correctly.

In one of the few references to the attack, Labrecque asked Bissonnette: “Why did you do it, Alex?” Bissonnette breathes deeply, sniffles, but doesn’t answer, saying only: “Ah, j’feel pas.”

The prosecution also presented the first 45 minutes of a three-hour police interrogation Bissonnette underwent the next morning, 14 hours after the attack. (The rest is to be screened on Friday.)

Wearing a white jump suit, Bissonnette fidgets, sniffles and cries throughout the first part of the video.

At one point, Bissonnette tells Sgt. Steve Girard of Quebec City police: “You said there were six murders. That can’t be.”

Other evidence presented by the prosecution Thursday included photos of the mosque and the weapons used in the attack.

The photos showed the mosque interior and exterior, as well as the layout of the building. Some showed blood-stained walls and rugs, as well as bullet holes in walls.

The prosecution showed photos of one of the guns Bissonnette took with him that night — a semi-automatic .223-calibre rifle made by the company Czech Small Arms.

He tried to fire it outside the mosque at two men, but the firearm jammed. That’s when he took out a handgun and shot Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, and Ibrahima Barry, 39. After they fell, he went to their inert bodies and shot each of them again.

As the prosecution showed photos of the mosque and his rifle, Bissonnette watched intently via a large screen about two metres in front of the glass- encased prisoner’s dock. Several times, he looked at the gallery, where his father was sitting a few seats away from members of the Muslim community.

At one point, the hearing had to be adjourned when Bissonnette reacted as the prosecutor read through reports listing the injuries suffered by the victims. Bissonnette turned his head away from the courtroom and his lawyer said he was not well.

Some of the photos filed as evidence Thursday showed the 9-mm Glock handgun that Bissonnette used in the shooting. It was in the back seat of the car he was driving when he surrendered to police soon after the shooting.

He had fired 48 rounds at the mosque. Two rounds were still in the handgun when he was arrested.

Also found in the car were a hunting knife and a 29-round magazine for the .223 rifle he had left behind at the mosque.