TORONTO – The lawyer representing Richard Kachkar, recently found not criminally responsible for the death of Toronto Police Sgt. Ryan Russell, is asking the Ontario Review Board to detain his client at a psychiatric hospital.
The board will ultimately determine where and for how long Kachkar will undergo psychiatric treatment.
The lawyer representing Kachkar, 46, and the Crown Attorney are asking the board to detain Kachkar at Ontario Shores Centre of Mental Health Sciences in Whitby.
Christine Russell, the widow of Sgt. Russell, is confident the board will ensure Kachkar is detained for at least a year, according to an interview she did with the Toronto Sun.
“If he is somebody who is mentally ill, I think we should all be concerned about how long he is locked up,” she told The Toronto Sun.
Kachkar was found not criminally responsible for the death of the police officer in March.
Russell, 35, was killed on Jan. 12, 2011 when he was hit by a stolen snow plow driven by Kachkar, who had allegedly been on a early morning rampage through city streets.
The ruling means Kachkar lacked the ability to appreciate what he did, or know it was wrong due to a mental disorder at the time of the incident.
In her victim impact statement Russell said she wanted Kachkar to know her husband was “outstanding.”
She added that she was not able to touch her husband after he died.
“I was told that Ryan was a crime scene, therefore I couldn’t touch him, couldn’t go near him, couldn’t kiss him goodbye,” she said.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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