Above: A Quebec coroner blames a multitude of human factors that lead to police killing teenager Fredy Villanueva. Mike Armstrong reports.
MONTREAL – After more than five years, the Quebec coroner’s office has released its report into the death of 18-year-old Fredy Villaneuva, who was shot by Montreal police in 2008.
After a 106-day inquest that heard from 47 witnesses, coroner and Quebec Court Judge André Perreault has ruled that the death was the result of a “multitude of human circumstances.”
He made over 20 recommendations to various bodies, including the Montreal police, the École nationale de police du Québec (the province’s police training centre), the City of Montreal and Montreal North borough council, and several of Quebec’s government departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, Health and Social Services and Education, Recreation and Sport.
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Among his recommendations:
► The Ministry of Public Security should review its guidelines, especially the way police officers are trained to “aim into a mass” when shooting a firearm;
► Police officers should be trained in the distinctions between criminal profiling , racial profiling and social profiling;
► Weapons and ammunition used by Montreal police officers should be reviewed and the ability to shoot three to eight bullets in succession within seconds after the first shot is fired should be not be allowed;
► A document should be created that outlines the correct use of police force, including when officers initiate physical contact and when they are authorized to remove their guns from their holsters;
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► The City of Montreal should create an action plan to fight poverty and social exclusion in Montreal North;
► The Ministry of Education should work to make sure that young people are taught how to behave when approached by police, and about the possible consequences of police interventions.
The investigation into the shooting began in May 2009.
It was stalled in February 2011 due to multiple court challenges from the City of Montreal and the Montreal Police Brotherhood. They were against making public information that could endanger the lives of officers.
It was finally completed after lurching to a start again in June 2013 with the testimony of two final witnesses.
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Villanueva died during a confrontation with police in 2008 after a group of young men playing dice in a park in Montreal North were approached by two police officers, Jean-Loup Lapointe and Stephanie Pilotte, who wanted to question Fredy’s brother Dany.
As Lapointe attempted to arrest Dany, he fired his gun several times and 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva was shot and killed.
Villanueva’s death provoked violent riots in Montreal North and tensions remained high in the neighbourhood for several days after.
A police investigation later cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.
Read the coroner’s recommendations in full below (in French):
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