Windsor Star (Ontario) Canada
March 1, 2013 Friday
Final Edition
Man psychotic when he hit cop; Toronto officer rammed with snow plow, died
by Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
TORONTO
A man on trial for killing a Toronto police officer was psychotic at
the time he rammed into the sergeant with a stolen snow plow and may
be schizophrenic, court heard Thursday.
Richard Kachkar, 44, appears to have been suffering for several years
from a “low-grade” mental illness with periodic spikes, such as in
2006 when he woke up in the middle of the night screaming that he was
possessed by the devil and slapped his wife, a psychiatrist testified.
There was also a “very serious” exacerbation in the months before
Kachkar killed Sgt. Ryan Russell in January 2011, forensic
psychiatrist Dr. Philip Klassen testified.
“I formed the opinion that, from a purely psychiatric perspective, I
felt that, on the balance of probabilities, he was not able to
appreciate the nature and quality of his actions or their rightness or
wrongness,” Klassen said.
Kachkar’s symptoms do not fit neatly into any one category, Klassen
said, noting if he had to offer a diagnosis it would be either an
unspecified psychotic disorder or possibly schizophrenia. Klassen
added that he thought Kachkar was exaggerating his reported amnesia
surrounding the death of Russell.
Kachkar has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, and his lawyers
are urging the jury to find him not criminally responsible – a finding
that means he had a mental disorder and couldn’t appreciate what he
was doing.
The judge has told the jury that there is “no doubt” Kachkar was
driving the stolen plow on Jan. 12, 2011, when it hit and killed the
35-year-old officer, but what is at issue is Kachkar’s mental state.
Friends have said that, in the days before Russell’s death, Kachkar
was behaving strangely, sleeping with his arms crossed like a mummy
and talking about “white Jesus” and cameras being everywhere.
As he drove the stolen snow plow wildly around the streets of Toronto
that morning for two hours he was yelling about the Taliban, Chinese
technology, Russian Facebook and paramedics putting microchips in his
body, his trial has heard.
Russell was killed after he got out of his cruiser to try to stop the
snow plow, which was driving into oncoming traffic and crashing into
other vehicles.
Klassen spent more than 10 hours interviewing Kachkar, spoke to his
estranged wife and daughter, and looked over voluminous other
materials in preparing his report.
He described Kachkar as a man whose “grandiose” business schemes
involved at various times the Kardashian sisters, a bakery for dogs
and a Russian submarine.
Among Kachkar’s possessions were pages of handwritten notes of plans
for architecture, banking, commerce and information technology
business ventures with the tabloid-fodder Kardashian family.
Klassen said when he asked Kachkar about the notes he “normalized” the
plans, talking about their shared Armenian heritage.
“He stated that, well, the Kardashian family is Armenian but they need
help, and he suggested that his talents could cover the various areas
that you’ve seen and that he in turn could help them,” Klassen
testified.
Based on his research, Klassen was also able to paint a picture of
Kachkar’s early life – growing up in Edmonton with three sisters and
hard-working immigrant parents – as unremarkable and middle-class.
In his 20s Kachkar went to study architecture in Armenia, where he met
his wife, though it seems their main reason for getting married was
that she conceived, Klassen said.
They moved back to Canada, where he studied computerized design in
British Columbia, then drifted around from job to job below his
education level, Klassen said.
When his father died in 2004 Kachkar inherited $100,000 and tried to
use the money flipping real estate in the United States, but he
ultimately lost the properties to unpaid taxes after he didn’t get a
work visa and couldn’t renovate them, Klassen said.
Kachkar took his son’s education money to buy a building in St.
Catharines, Ont., where he was living until his arrest.
He was described by family as intrusive, controlling, argumentative
and demanding, and police were called on a few occasions for incidents
of pushing and shoving, Klassen said.
Kachkar and his wife separated around 2006, when she reported to
social workers that she was worried about him because she thought he
was mentally ill, Klassen said.