Cop killer Kachkar discharged
Mental health facility to release man who ran down officer Richard Kachkar, in an undated photo, killed Sgt. Ryan Russell four years ago.
A man who was found not criminally responsible for killing a Toronto police officer with a stolen snowplow has been given a conditional discharge from a mental health facility in Durham Region. The Ontario Review Board decided to release Richard Kachkar at its hearing on July 13.
In 2013, a jury decided Kachkar was in a psychotic state when, on Jan. 11, 2011, he stole a snowplow and hit police Sgt. Ryan Russell, who tried to intervene.
The board’s chair, Richard Schneider, said Kachkar’s release is subject to a number of conditions.
He will continue to live at a transitional home and is required to report to the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby once every two weeks, Schneider said.
KACHKAR continued on GT4
The release also bars Kachkar from consuming alcohol, carrying any weapons or using nonmedical drugs. “A violation of any of these conditions would mean that he’d be arrested anywhere in Canada, with or without a warrant,” Schneider said.
“The decision only means that his condition is sufficiently well-controlled and he no longer requires in-patient hospital care.”
After he was found not criminally responsible, Kachkar was sent to live at the Ontario Shores Centre.
A person found not criminally responsible by a court faces a number of conditions and is subject to annual reviews.
In 2015, at the advice of the Ontario Review Board, Kachkar was moved to a lower-security unit within the centre and allowed limited circulation in the Durham Region while under the supervision of another person.
A year later, a board decision said Kachkar was a “low risk” to act out violently. He was then allowed to gradually transition into living in the community, with minimum supervision and professional support.
Sgt. Russell’s widow, Christine Russell, has in the past expressed concern about the release of Kachkar, saying she would always see him as “a murderer.”
“He’s going to walk away, out the door and no one is going to remember,” she said in 2017 when Kachkar was sent to live in a supportive housing program, with daily visits from mental health workers.
“He killed somebody. It’s not a light matter and I know (the board members) are very careful with their decision-making, but I don’t think any of them have had to walk in our shoes and know the hell we’ve gone through … There are no guarantees this could not happen again,” she said then.
Schneider said the board has more than 1,500 cases like that of Kachkar.
The board constantly reviews them with the goal of imposing conditions that are least restrictive to the accused, while at the same time protecting the public, he said.
Karen DeFreitas, the medical director of forensic psychiatry at the Whitby centre, said a patient is given a conditional discharge when they’ve already lived in the community and have a track record of good and stable behaviour.
“There’s no such a thing as perfect security, but people can be assured that the person has been thoroughly assessed and vetted,” she said.
“I understand the frustration, but when a person is not criminally responsible for their action it’s about rehabilitation and not punishment.”