The Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) is laying charges against a Quebec police officer involved in violent filmed interventions that occurred near Grande-Allée in November 2021.
Jacob Picard, 27, will appear on November 28 at the Quebec City courthouse. He faces charges of assault causing bodily harm and assault.
The BEI had opened two investigations following the dissemination, on social networks, of videos showing violent interventions carried out by the GRIPP unit of the Quebec City police service (SPVQ). These investigations focused on two events: the first occurred around November 20, 2021 near the Le Dagobert bar and another, which occurred around October 17 of the same year, in a licensed establishment on rue Saint-Joseph, in the lower town. of Quebec.
These interventions, filmed and widely broadcast in the media, had caused a stir regarding the behavior of the police. In the intervention carried out on Grande-Allée, agent Picard violently pushes a citizen against a car. In the second, captured by a surveillance camera, he projects a man against a wall without apparent provocation.
Following an internal investigation, the SPVQ had itself concluded that criminal acts may have been committed by its police officer. The Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, had asked the BEI to investigate to shed light on the actions perpetrated by the agent.
Nearly a year after the events, the Bureau announced that Jacob Picard will face charges. “Out of respect for the judicial process and in order not to harm it, the BEI will not issue any further comment,” he concluded in a brief statement issued on Monday.
As soon as the investigations opened in November 2021, the SPVQ had required the five police officers involved to perform administrative tasks. Four of them returned to the patrol a few months later. The agent who was the subject of the two BEI investigations, Jacob Picard, remained assigned outside the field.