The head of the Old Brewery Mission is speaking out after a 38-year-old man was shot and killed by Montreal police Friday.
“We have another incident in Montreal where a homeless individual and the police were in a confrontation and the homeless person ended up dead,” Matthew Pearce, the mission’s president and CEO, said.
“This is the fourth such incident in about four or five years and I’m left wondering, as so many other Montrealers are, ‘Could there have been some other outcome?'”
Montreal police spokesperson Daniel Lacoursière said the incident started at 2:30 p.m. Friday inside the Complexe Guy-Favreau on the corner of René-Lévesque Boulevard and Saint-Urbain Street.
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“The suspect assaulted another man with a sharp object, wounding him in the upper body,” Lacoursière said.
He said the man then left the scene and was followed by witnesses, who alerted police.
Lacoursière said authorities found the suspect on Viger Street, just behind the Old Brewery Mission, where he “made threatening gestures towards police officers.”
Quebec’s Bureau of independent investigations (BEI) is looking into the incident and it deployed nine investigators on Friday.
WATCH BELOW: Security footage of homeless man, Montreal police altercation.
Meanwhile, Pearce said he is seeking a meeting with the Police Chief Philippe Pichet.
“There is, generally speaking, very low trust between the homeless population and the police,” he said.
“We deal with conflictual situations with the homeless population really on a daily basis and we manage it very differently. Our approach is very different than the police.”
If Pearce does meet with the chief, he said he will discuss the possibility of training police officers on how to better deal with these types of situations.
“We think we have something to share with the police that can help them in the future be better prepared to manage a situation … especially in a way that doesn’t lead to somebody’s death,” Pearce said.
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