The City of Montreal will pay $145,000 in compensation to the members of a Montreal family traumatized by a search carried out at their home in February 2022 by police officers who had taken the wrong accommodation.
It was around 5:30 a.m. on the morning of February 17, 2022, when police officers from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) broke down the door of the home of Brahim Tarhri, Hassani Asma and their four children, aged between 1 and 12 years old, to carry out a search. After storming into the apartment located in Ahuntsic-Cartierville and questioning the occupants, the police realized their mistake. They had broken into the wrong apartment in the building.
Following this event, which upset the family, they filed a lawsuit against the City of Montreal last July and demanded $242,000.
Panic and Terror
According to the facts related in the originating application filed by Brahim Tarhri and Hassani Asma, the family members were sleeping peacefully when the police burst into their accommodation. Hearing the din in the entrance of the apartment, the mother of the family rushes into the wardrobe to hide there. As the one-year-old baby begins to cry, Mr. Tarhri rushes out of the bedroom to try to figure out what’s going on in the hallway. In the darkness, he sees several police officers armed with assault rifles, the suit reads. He yells at his children to stay in their room and not come out no matter what.
The police then point their weapons at the parents, ordering them to put their hands on their heads and not to move. The parents, who comply, are totally panicked and in shock, according to the lawsuit documents. “Completely distraught, they feared that they and/or their family would be shot in their own home,” the claimants point out.
After discussion, however, the police understood that they had taken the wrong accommodation and that the individual they were looking for lived in another apartment in the building. They then left the scene. “The plaintiffs considered that they had just passed on the brink of death,” the petition states.
A police officer, however, would have returned to apologize to the parents. Later in the afternoon, a commander and his deputy also reportedly came to the accommodation to apologize.
“It is totally unacceptable [qu’]a tactical squad from one of the largest cities in Canada takes the wrong address and smashes through a dwelling full of innocent citizens and their young children, loaded assault weapons in hand,” say Brahim Tarhri and Hassani Asma in the lawsuit filed against the city. According to them, the police should have made the necessary checks before investing their apartment.
Following this event, the family maintains that they no longer feel safe in the accommodation. The police intervention psychologically affected the parents. Mr. Tarhri had to quit his job and expert reports confirmed his temporary inability to work. For their part, the children developed sleep disorders, the court documents indicate.
The family therefore claimed from the City an amount of $242,000 for the damages suffered.
“reasonable” amount
After conducting an investigation, the City of Montreal concluded that the risks of being convicted following this police blunder were high. She therefore began negotiations with the plaintiffs with the aim of reaching an out-of-court settlement.
A settlement was finally reached and the City agreed to pay the sum of $145,000 to the family of Brahim Tarhri and Hassani Asma. This amount includes the value of moral damages for each member of the family as well as Mr. Tarhri’s lost wages, the city documents show. During the weekly meeting of the executive committee on Wednesday, Montreal elected officials approved this agreement.
“According to our assessment of the evidence on file and the applicable case law, this is a reasonable amount, given the risks and vagaries of a trial in this case”, write the lawyers for the City in the documents submitted. to elected officials.
“We are satisfied with the settlement in this case which allows my clients to turn the page on this event and move on,” commented the family lawyer, Mr.e Paul Kalash, in an email Friday.