André Dallaire attempted to assassinate Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, but was thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife quickly locked the door, preventing a potential national security crisis.
André Dallaire, a Canadian, attempted to assassinate Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien in 1995. Dallaire claimed that he heard voices that led him to break into the 24 Sussex Drive residence.
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At trial, Justice Paul Bélanger agreed with Dallaire's earlier diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and found Dallaire guilty of attempted murder, but not criminally responsible.
On this day, Dallaire arrived outside 24 Sussex Drive and spent the next 20 minutes throwing stones onto the grounds and waving at security cameras while carrying a pocket knife alternatively described as three or five inches in length (7.5 or 12.5 cm).
He then climbed the fence and strode over to the house, where he smashed a glass door and entered, wandering around the basement and ground floor for 30 minutes before heading to the Chrétiens' bedroom, where he was confronted by Chrétien's wife, Aline, as he was pulling on his gloves.
Aline hurried back into the bedroom and locked the door, rousing her husband, who initially dismissed her story as "just a dream", while she dialled the RCMP officers stationed outside the house.
It was reported that either Aline or Jean brandished an Inuit stone sculpture of a loon in case Dallaire broke through the door. Dallaire did not attempt to break down the door, and waited for the police to arrive.
Controversially, it took roughly seven minutes for the police to respond to Aline's desperate call about an intruder trying to kill the Prime Minister, in part because the first officer to respond had forgotten his key to the residence.