Suspect arrested after release

The local charged in connection with threats made to the Kateri Memorial Hospital Centre (KMHC) was arrested again last week. The door of his family home was rammed open during the commotion, according to a neighbour, which culminated in him being escorted out in handcuffs and into a cruiser.

Joseph So:se Montour’s arrest last Friday morning comes just weeks after he was released from custody on January 13. He had to undergo a mental health evaluation prior to a judge deciding on his release.

The 29-year-old man now faces three new charges in addition to six separate offences stemming from his prior arrest in December.

He was arrested then in connection with two calls the Peacekeepers allege he made to the hospital threatening to come in and shoot, which included one on November 19 and another on December 7.

The calls to the hospital’s front desk prompted lockdowns being called on both occasions. Police were able to locate the suspect after tracing one of the calls back to an IP address of a nearby home, where he resides.

Montour’s most recent arrest unfolded last Friday morning.

He told The Eastern Door the arrest was so brutal he had to receive medical care afterwards, leaving the hospital that day with stitches in his head.

“I never attempted to hit nor harm the officers,” he said.

Peacekeepers were called to his home after he “lost it,” as he put it in his own words.

“I was breaking drywall and throwing things around the house because I was angry,” he said.

He said by the time police arrived at his door they had their firearms drawn. According to him, it was a window that was rammed down, not a door.

“I retreated into the house as I was scared for my safety, they then battery rammed an air conditioner out of a window to throw a flash/concussion grenade,” Montour said. “At that point, I was sitting in my attic just waiting. Then they found me, so I came out with my hands up.”

Assistant police chief Jody Diabo declined to comment on the claims of brutality, saying she couldn’t now that charges have been laid against Montour.

A neighbour who spoke to The Eastern Door said they first took notice of the presence of multiple Peacekeepers and their cruisers around the home at around 9:30 a.m. that morning. At least two were carrying firearms, the neighbour said.

As of around 10:45 a.m., he was seen exiting the home cuffed alongside a Peacekeeper, they said.

The call to police came from inside the home at around 8:30 a.m. that morning, Diabo said. By around 11 a.m. their officers had cleared the area, she said.

“He was in crisis. We went there. He’s been charged,” she said, declining to share more details about what transpired.

He was charged with uttering threats, obstruction of justice, and a breach of his conditions following the arrest. Montour appeared in court the same day in Longueuil, pleading not guilty to all three charges. He’s since been released on bail.

He has yet to plead before a judge in connection with his arrest in December. The six charges stemming from then include three for uttering threats, two for intimidation, and one for allegedly assaulting a Peacekeeper.

Montour shared he intends to plead not guilty to those charges.

“There is no question that Mr. Montour will have to deal with the entire situation. How he deals with it is but a detail,” said Steven Slimovitch, the lawyer representing him.

“What’s important for everyone, and mostly society, is that we understand that there’s a bigger issue here, which is a mental health problem,” he said. “We have to stop, as a society, dealing with the consequences of it and deal with the problem.”

What’s transpired is a “problem of mental health,” his lawyer emphasized, not a “problem of criminal law.”

“It’s being dealt with through various forms of medical care. It’s been dealt with through various forms of therapy, various forms of treatment,” Slimovitch said.

His client will appear again in court in the coming weeks, he said.

The Eastern Door has requested a copy of Montour’s mental health evaluation but has yet to hear back from the office of the judge presiding over his case.

Montour’s court file reveals he’s been arrested before by the Peacekeepers for making threats, once in 2021 and another time in 2022.

He pleaded not guilty following both arrests. The charges stemming from his 2021 arrest were later withdrawn in 2022. He was also acquitted on charges stemming from his 2022 arrest in 2023.

Though he was acquitted on the threat charge and another for obstructing justice in 2023, the judge did agree to impose a one-year protection order for someone Montour knew who had requested one.

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