Amqui residents still in shock after tragedy

More information was released Tuesday about the victims who were struck by a pickup truck in the small Quebec town of Amqui in the Lower St. Lawrence region.

Quebec provincial police spokesperson Claude Dorion said that two men aged 73 and 65 were killed when they were walking on the side of the road and nine others were injured, including a baby less than a year old and a three-year-old toddler.

The children were seriously injured but the injuries are not life-threatening.

Investigators with expertise analyzing accidents are on the scene to determine how fast the driver was going and how long he was on Highway 132 before the vehicle struck the pedestrians. 

On Monday afternoon, 38-year-old Steeve Gagnon was arrested and is likely to face first-degree murder and hit-and-run charges. He is expected to appear in court today.

Dorion said it appears to be a premeditated act and that the suspect was not known to police. He added that the driver admitted to the crime and went directly to the local police station. 

The Bloc MP for Avignon–La Mitis–Matane–Matapédia, Kristina Michaud, said she was shocked to hear the news, since her hometown is a small, peaceful community of 6,000 people.

“It’s people I know who were affected, who witnessed it, who intervened,” she said in an interview in Amqui, near the scene of the tragedy.

Like other citizens of the city, Michaud said she was worried about her own mother, who goes down the street to take her walks.

“Here in Amqui, when you hear a police, ambulance or fire siren, you stick your nose out the window because you think, ‘Who is that? We must know this person,'” she said. “Yesterday, it was several people we knew. It’s extremely disturbing. The whole community wishes it was a bad dream.”

With files from The Canadian Press.