THE family of a 27-year-old man who has been charged with killing his father and seriously injuring his mother moved to British Columbia from Saskatchewan in the last year because they'd hoped Jordan Ramsay would get better mental health services in this province.
Dan Sudeyko, defence lawyer for Ramsay, added in comments made outside court, that the family had only been living in North Vancouver for three weeks before the violent altercation happened at their shared home on West 28th Street on Nov. 5.
Sudeyko said part of the reason for the family's move from Nanaimo was they hoped North Vancouver would offer better prospects for Ramsay.
Ramsay has been certified under the Mental Health Act and remained in custody at Lions Gate Hospital under guard on Thursday.
He has been charged with the second-degree murder of his father, Donald Ramsay, and the attempted murder of his mother, Wendy Ramsay.
Following a hearing in North Vancouver provincial court Thursday morning, Judge Steven Merrick ordered that Ramsay be sent to the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Port Coquitlam for a 30-day evaluation. There, a psychiatrist will determine what his mental state was at the time of the alleged offences. If it is determined Ramsay was mentally ill when he allegedly attacked his mother and father, he would likely be declared not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder. It would then be up to a psychiatric review board outside of the criminal justice system to decide what should happen.
Family members have said Ramsay has previously been diagnosed as a borderline schizophrenic, that he has been previously prescribed a number of anti-psychotic drugs and that he has suffered periods of delusion, Sudeyko told the judge on Thursday.
Police arrived at the apartment in the 500-block of W. 28th Street at about 1: 30 a.m. after someone called to report a domestic dispute. They found Ramsay's parents, both 53, both suffering from extensive blunt force injuries. Paramedics were unable to save Ramsay's father, who died of his injuries.
Ramsay's mother remains in intensive care in Lions Gate Hospital with severe head injuries.
jseyd@nsnews.com
