Man shot by police to undergo assessment

A Fort Erie man who flew in to a rage and stabbed a 61-year-old hospital patient numerous times before being shot by police has been ordered to undergo an assessment to determine if he is criminally responsible for his actions.

In Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Thursday, Brandon Stewart, 29, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon stemming from the May 18 incident at Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie.

While he pleaded not guilty to the offences, lawyer Kim Vanderlee said her client conceded to the facts presented by the Crown.

“Mr. Stewart is not in the position to dispute the facts read by the Crown,” she told Judge Fergus O’Donnell.

Stewart will now undergo a 30-day assessment at a Hamilton hospital and is scheduled to return to court Dec. 12.

Court heard a 61-year-old man went to Douglas Memorial on May 18 after suffering a broken wrist as the result of a fall.

About the same time, Stewart had been brought to the Bertie Street hospital by Niagara Emergency Medical Services. The two men did not know each other.

Assistant Crown attorney Jacqueline Strecansky told court the victim was lying on a stretcher in a treatment room when Stewart entered the room and lunged at him.

She said the defendant “straddled” the older man and stabbed him in the chest several times.

The victim, with blood gushing out of his chest, wrestled with his attacker and both fell to the floor at which time the victim was stabbed in the back.

Strecansky said the defendant accused the victim of “hurting kids” and “bragging about killing puppies.”

Several Niagara Regional Police officers arrived at the hospital within minutes of receiving a 911 call and ordered Stewart to drop his knife.

Stewart refused. When he charged at police, he was shot in the abdomen.

Both Stewart and the victim was transported by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

The victim sustained a punctured lung and Stewart underwent surgery to remove the bullet.

In a hand-written note to the judge, Stewart said he acknowledges the facts although he can’t

remain in place as a way of preventing the Americans from taking punitive action against the Canadian automotive industry.

The tentative deal protects Canadian automakers from new American tariffs.

However, Freeland said the steel tariffs and the trade deal are not connected, and Canada will continue its challenges. She said the best outcome for both countries would be the end of both Canadian and American tariffs.

Although Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador have agreed to sign the deal before Dec. 1, it still must be ratified by the governments of all three countries. Some senior Democrats in the U.S. have indicated that support for the deal won’t be a mere formality.

Freeland would not comment on the possible impact on ratification of Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives in the recent American mid-term elections, or if the Canadian government would push the newly elected House for concessions.

Freeland said the ratification process south of the 49th is a purely American matter. She said her American counterparts would not appreciate her opining on internal American politics any more than Ottawa would if Washington began to tell the Canadian government how to vote.