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Man psychotic when he hit cop; Toronto officer rammed with snow plow

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  • Man psychotic when he hit cop; Toronto officer rammed with snow plow

    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.

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