The man accused of shooting at police during a 20-hour standoff in Cote St. Luc last month has died.
The lawyer for Abraham Isidore Havis confirmed that his client passed away Saturday while in hospital. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
Lawyer Jeffrey Boro said the conditions in the hospital may have contributed to his client's death.
The standoff began the morning of July 30 when two men attempted to change the Hydro-Quebec meter on Havis's home. Havis allegedly threatened them with a firearm, then barricaded himself in his house.
When police surrounded his house Havis fired at them, injuring one officer.
Havis was shot with rubber bullets and had several bones broken when police stormed into his house and arrested him. He was charged with 14 crimes in connection with the standoff.
Boro said that the case was a "royal screw-up" with police treating Havis, 71 and with a heart condition, as if he were a 25-year-old man.
He also said that Havis was disoriented in hospital, had to be restrained in his bed following surgery to repair his broken bones, was under police guard 24 hours a day and was only granted limited access to his family.
Havis was supposed to appear in court last Tuesday for a bail hearing in the case but the hearing was postponed because he was still in hospital coping with several injuries.
After the standoff ended police seized 180 firearms from Havis's home.
Multiple neighbours said that Havis had a history of violent and threatening behaviour, and that he suffered from dementia.
“(He was) cranky, a little irascible, but no one could have ever imagined that. It's a sad day and I’m sorry to hear that he's gone,” said one neighbour.
“We didn’t want him to die, just for him to get the help he needed,” said another.
The Montreal police declined to comment, saying there could be an internal investigation if the autopsy finds a link between Havis’s arrest and his death.
