‘TELL THEM I NEVER HURT ANYONE’
MOSQUE ATTACK Bissonnette suicidal in 911 call after shootings
QUEBEC • Ten minutes after he opened fire inside a Quebec City mosque, Alexandre Bissonnette called 911 from the side of a road and repeatedly asked the operator if anyone at the mosque was injured.
The operator, Simon Labrecque, told him he didn’t know.
“Tell them, I never hurt anyone,” an emotional Bissonnette asked Labrecque to tell police.
Labrecque told him: “If there are injuries, don’t worry about it, ambulances are there.”
“OK, good,” Bissonnette replied.
Bissonnette said he had a gun in the back seat of the car.
“I think I’m just going to kill myself,” he told Labrecque.
A recording of the call made Jan. 29, 2017, was played in a Quebec City courtroom at Bissonnette’s sentencing hearing Thursday.
He pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder for the attack on the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec. Six Muslim men were shot dead as they prayed.
The maximum sentence Bissonnette 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.
The Crown prosecutor entered the recording of the 911 call into evidence and presented police photos taken the night of the shooting.
They included images of a semi-automatic weapon lying in the snow, shoes strewn all over the place and walls damaged by bullets. See MOSQUE on NP2
The most shocking photos of raw violence were not tabled as evidence.
During the 911 call, Labrecque tried to soothe Bissonnette, asking him to stay on the line and to try to control his breathing. Bissonnette said he feared the police would shoot him.
Labrecque advised Bissonnette police would not shoot him if he stayed calm, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his phone.
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.
Bissonnette repeatedly told Labrecque he wanted to leave the car and surrender.
“I’m sick of this,” Bissonnette says several times.
Labrecque told him police needed time to make a perimeter around him and wanted to make sure everything was done correctly.
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 brought with him that night — a semiautomatic .223-calibre rifle made by 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 via a large screen as he sat in a glass-en- cased prisoner’s dock.
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 Bissonnette used. It was in the back seat of the car he was driving when he surrendered to police.
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.