Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security says it will launch an internal audit looking into the death of Nicous D’Andre Spring at a Quebec jail Christmas Eve.
Department spokeswoman Marie-Josee Montminy says the 21-year-old was in “illegal detention” when he was injured Dec. 24 inside the Montreal detention centre, known as the Bordeaux jail. Spring died in hospital.
Montminy explained that Spring should have been released Dec. 23 after he appeared virtually in court earlier that day.
“It is sad and it is horrifying and I’m afraid it won’t be the last time,” said Renate Betts, the former director at Westhaven-Elmhurst Community Recreation Association.
Betts worked with Spring and describes him as “gentle and sweet.”
Spring had appeared in court Dec. 23 on charges of assaulting a peace officer, criminal harassment and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He was also facing two counts of failing to comply with a condition of release. He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
He was also charged several times in 2021 with failing to comply with a condition of release, as well as on one count of assaulting a police officer.
In 2020, he was charged with robbery, assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
“The system is broken for young, Black men. We know it is,” Betts said. “I would argue that if we looked through his life, we will probably find instances of the system failing him along the way that had directly led him to being in the situation that he was in.”
One jail guard has been suspended in relation to Spring’s death, which is being investigated by provincial police and the coroner’s office.
Neither the police nor the government has released details about the incident inside the jail that led to the young man’s death.
“It’s sad because he’s a really vibrant young boy turning into a man. At 21 you’re just starting your life,” said Stephen Hennessy, a teen program co-ordinator at Westhaven-Elmhurst Community Association. “To hear that his life was cut short unnecessarily is saddening.”
Hennessy, who worked and mentored Spring at the association, says the family is in shock.
“You have a mother that just lost her child. You have sisters that just lost their brother and you have a community that’s lost another one of our young sons,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy says the 21-year-old participated in the teen leadership program writing and recording music.
He was an aspiring rapper also known as “YK Lyrical.”
“He was sweet, generous, kind, handsome and loving above all,” his sister Sarafina Dennie wrote on a GoFundMe page raising money for the family. “He was always seen with a smile on his face. Nicous loved his family dearly, he always visited when he could, greeting with big hugs and was always there when you needed him. May he rest in eternal peace.”
Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel tweeted Thursday, “I want all the light to be shed on these events. To do this, several investigations are underway. The mistakes made will have to be assumed and answered.”
McGill University professor and researcher Dr. Myrna Lashley thinks high profile incidents of Black men killed in custody in recent years have contributed to Quebec appearing to take Spring’s death seriously.
“They’re making all the right moves and saying all the right things,” Dr. Lashley said. “So my attitude is ‘I’m going to wait and see what comes out of this’. I’m not going to jump to any conclusions and assume it’s racism or not racism.”
A vigil is scheduled for Friday evening in Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough.
— with files from Global’s Dan Spector, Phil Carpenter and The Canadian Press