Man accused of stabbing Bridgewater officer to undergo assessment of criminal responsibility

The man accused of attempted murder after an incident in July in Bridgewater, N.S., will undergo a 30-day assessment of criminal responsibility.

Tobias Doucette appeared in provincial court Tuesday morning in what was scheduled to be a bail hearing. Instead, his lawyer asked for the assessment, which is now set to take place at the forensic unit of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside.

Defence lawyer Darren MacLeod declined to speak about the possible outcomes of the assessment. He said it would be up to the experts at the Burnside jail to compile a report and submit it to the court before Doucette's next appearance on Oct. 15.

"That is their job, not mine," MacLeod said in an interview after the court appearance Tuesday.

Doucette is alleged to have stabbed a Bridgewater police officer in the neck and then fled from the scene of the incident at the Bridgewater Hotel.

Police were responding to a domestic violence call and found a woman who had been staying with Doucette injured.

Doucette was on the loose in the Bridgewater area for several days.

Police came close to catching him on one occasion but Doucette is alleged to have stabbed a police dog with a sharp stick and got away.

Three days later a couple in Hebbville called 911 when they saw Doucette trying to ram a truck he had stolen through a steel fence.

A few hours after that a police emergency response team arrested Doucette after an RCMP plane found a heat signal in a wooded area that turned out to be him.

Doucette is facing additional charges on top of assault and attempted murder.

They include aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, injuring a law enforcement animal, mischief, theft of a motor vehicle, and two counts of possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes.