QUEBEC CITY - The father of a toddler shot and killed last week says the suspect is an earnest but simple-minded man who was trying to protect the boy's mother from a stalker.

Nicolas Lacroix, 36, is charged with manslaughter after a gun went off in the family home on Thursday.
Sources told QMI Agency that 2-year-old Nathan Lecours was shot in the head with a gun that was loaded with an unlocked safety inside a bag.

The father, Eric Lecours, spoke briefly with QMI Agency prior to a candlelight vigil in Levis, Que., a suburb of the provincial capital.

He compared Lacroix to the gentle giant in John Steinbeck's famous novel who inadvertently kills an innocent woman.

"In wanting to help, well ... it's like Of Mice and Men," said Lecours. "He's just a simple person who wanted to give a little help.

"The investigation will reveal how it happened and there is nothing else to add."

Lacroix is charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.

He's an acquaintance of the boy's mother, a woman who had grown fearful after threats from another man.
In the days before the shooting, the boy's mother had complained on a social media website about an unidentified man who had harassed her.

"I fear for my safety and my son's," she posted on Facebook.