The Ontario Review Board (ORB) has ordered a conditional discharge for Richard Kachkar, who was found not criminally responsible for killing Toronto Police Sgt. Ryan Russell in 2011.
Kachkar was found not criminally responsible in March 2013 for killing Russell, a 35-year-old husband and father of a two-year-old boy.
During an ORB hearing in early July, Sgt. Ryan Russell’s widow delivered an emotional impact statement.
“Richard, you killed my husband Ryan Russell seven-and-a-half years ago. But it’s me getting a life sentence, I’m the one living without him,” Christine Russell said.
Russell died after Kachkar ran the 11-year-veteran officer over while behind the wheel of a stolen snowplow on Avenue Road near Davenport Avenue.
Two years later, a jury agreed with Kachkar’s lawyer, who argued he was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time.
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Kachkar had been living at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (OSCMHS) up until his release in April 2017, when he moved into a residence in the Durham region. In June 2017, he was granted permission to travel in order to visit his daughter.
After the hearing in July, Christine expressed frustration with the process and the fact that she only learned about the review board hearing two days prior.
“The board will offer him his conditional discharge. Every year I give a statement and it seems like it falls on deaf ears,” she said.
“I’m part of the process out of kindness, but not as a necessity.”
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Some of the conditions of Kachkar’s conditional discharge are that he must continue to live at his current address and report to the OSCMHS at least once every two weeks. He cannot drive and must completely refrain from alcohol or drug use. Kachkar must submit to random urine and/or breath tests and advise the OSCMHS whether he will be away from his home for 24 hours or more.
—With files from The Canadian Press