Family, friends rally around ‘community’s Carl’ after scary collision in Steelton

A member of the Sault’s homeless community who has endeared himself to the public is very much alive and on the road to recovery after being struck by a vehicle in Steelton earlier this week.   

Carl Landry — known to many people in town simply by his first name — is currently resting at Sault Area Hospital, despite rumours on social media that he had died after being struck by a vehicle on Wellington Street West at approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday night. Sault Ste. Marie Police Service spokesperson Lincoln Louttit told SooToday that one person was taken to hospital with life threatening injuries as a result of the collision. 

Carl’s mother and sister drove down from White River to be at his side in the hospital Friday.   

“He could’ve possibly died,” said Carl’s mom, Marie Fortier, speaking with SooToday from the hospital. “He’s very, very lucky that he has absolutely nothing broken — no injuries at all.”

Fortier says her son was intubated and placed in a medically induced coma in order to give his body a chance to rest and recover. Carl began to wake up slowly on Thursday after the tube was removed. “He’s just very tired,” she said. 

Carl's mom doesn’t know much about what actually transpired on the night of the collision. An eyewitness who made the 911 call declined to speak with SooToday Thursday. Police say the investigation into the incident is ongoing. 

“Carl is not in the right state of mind to actually explain to me what exactly happened,” said Fortier. “I just know by what I’ve seen on Facebook.” 

His family has been trying to get him help for his mental health and addictions issues since Carl was a teenager back home in White River. They would eventually move him to the Sault when he was just 18 in a bid to get him adequate care, after he began experiencing episodes of psychosis.     

“It started to get worse and worse, needing more and more and stronger stuff,” said his sister, Vanessa Landry. “He was ending up in the hospital with drug-induced psychosis, and it happened several times. We couldn’t help him — in White River, there was just no services, no nothing, to help people in that situation.” 

Carl’s drug use started innocently enough with a bit of cannabis as a teen. His mom says all of that changed, however, when he unknowingly smoked some weed laced with crystal methamphetamine — a consequence, family members believe, of Carl hanging out with a bad crowd. “He was too young to know any better back then, and the dealers that were selling the drugs just don’t care — they just want you to buy their drugs and get hooked,” Fortier said. 

Carl turned 26 years old this past April, having endured more than a decade of living with addiction and mental health issues.   

“Now that’s his life,” his mom said. “We’ve tried to help him, we’ve tried to get him cleaned up and come back to reality, and hopefully go back to school and do something positive with his life. But he’s too far gone — the addiction is just stronger than his will to get better.” 

Carl’s struggles with mental health and addictions issues spiralled even further in the Sault following the death of his former girlfriend, Charlott Brightnose, who was killed at Al’s Corner Pub during a May 17, 2021 confrontation about a missing cell phone. 

Brightnose died from a single shotgun blast to her neck. Her killer, Jerry Leveille, was sentenced to six years in jail. He was charged with second-degree murder, but the Crown accepted a guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter. 

One of Carl’s good friends, Angie DeSimon, remembers that period in his life vividly from her time operating the Compassion Hub, a now-defunct drop-in centre for people living with mental health and addiction issues that Carl would pay visits to daily.

“He tried to resuscitate her, and she was shot in the throat. He went downhill so fast, and he hasn’t been the same since then,” DeSimon recalled. “That’s enough trauma…I couldn’t even imagine. So, when people talk bad about him, I get upset. I get so upset. If you’ve been through what this man has been through…”

DeSimon says Carl and his girlfriend truly loved one another. “I remember days after that, he was walking around with a bloodstained t-shirt from her blood — still walking around like that,” she said. “He’s never been sober since.” 

Carl is a well-known fixture of the Sault’s downtown core, and can often be found in good spirits and dancing on street corners. “I see police stopping and giving him doughnuts and food, the whole community dresses him. This community takes care of Carl,” said DeSimon. “Carl is ours, you know what I mean? I don’t think that will ever change.”

The outpouring of care and concern for Carl from people in the Sault isn’t lost on his mom, either. “That’s amazing,” said Fortier. “I’m very grateful for everybody’s generosity and people who help him.”

But it’s not all care and compassion in the Sault when it comes to Carl. His family members were saddened by a number of negative comments made on social media in the hours after he was struck by a vehicle. “Some people are very nasty, and they don’t know. They don’t have a clue,” said his mom. “They’re being very judgmental.” 

It’s unclear how long it will take Carl to get out of the hospital and back on the street, but right now his family believes it could happen within a couple of days. That will no doubt be welcome news to DeSimon, who first learned of the collision through social media, where some people had suggested that Carl had died as a result of the collision.      

“He’s definitely the community’s Carl,” DeSimon said. “He’s the community’s Carl, because we’ve all adopted him — all of us.”