‘I managed to get four out’: Father recounts daycare terror
‘Motive remains incomprehensible,’ minister says
A city was united in grief on Thursday as parents, community members and elected officials gathered to pay tribute to two children who were killed a day earlier when a city bus rammed into a daycare during a busy morning drop-off period.
Throughout the day, a steady stream of visitors stopped to add to the growing memorial of flowers and teddy bears in front of the boarded-up Garderie Éducative Ste-Rose, in Laval, Que., wiping away tears and expressing their incomprehension at what authorities say was a deliberate attack.
André Beaudoin, a father of a twoyear-old boy who attends the daycare, said he had to push through debris on Wednesday to help pull injured children from under the bus, which had shattered the front of the building.
“I managed to get four out; the last girl … her head was stuck really bad,” he told reporters.
Beaudoin said he had just parked to drop off his son when he saw the city bus barrel into the daycare. He said he ran into the building, and despite the fact that most of the children had fled, “we heard the screams” of those still trapped.
Two children, both four years old, were killed in the crash and six others were hospitalized. Pierre Ny StAmand, a 51-year-old driver with the Laval transit corporation, was arrested at the scene and later charged with two counts of firstdegree murder as well as seven other charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.
On Thursday, large sheets of plywood covered the damaged wall of the fenced-off building, next to a cheerful sign spelling out the daycare’s name in pink letters. Piles of debris from the damaged roof and interior lay in the snow. The bus, which had been lodged in the wall, was towed away late Wednesday.
Quebec Premier François Legault and other political leaders visited the neighbourhood to offer support to families and daycare workers affected by the tragedy.
Legault also spoke briefly with Beaudoin, who told the premier, “Our daycares have to be protected.” He said there should be barriers installed in front of the facilities to shield them from vehicles.
Earlier in the day, authorities were still trying to understand what could have led someone to drive a bus into a daycare. “The motive remains incomprehensible still today,” Public Security Minister François Bonnardel told reporters in Quebec City.
Asked what authorities could have done to prevent that kind of violence, Bonnardel said “no one can predict this kind of event. No one can predict that someone gets up in the morning, takes off with a bus and decides to hit a daycare with a bus.”
Witnesses said the driver was delirious after exiting the bus, tearing off his clothes and screaming as several people restrained him on the ground before police arrived.