“I was a victim in this. It wasn’t me, the suspect”: Sanjay Vig’s life was turned upside down after the attack suffered in 2021 when the case was highly publicized. The police officer also reiterated in his cross-examination that Mamadi Camara was particularly aggressive. He remembers it because, according to him, the majority of his interventions go well.
“It talked a lot about racism. There was a lot of talk about that on TV and I’m zero racist. It was going to dig me deep, all of that,” Officer Vig explained to the jury in reference to the days following the assault. The trial of Ali Ngarukiye, a man accused of trying to kill and disarm him, continued Friday in Montreal.
The event caused a lot of noise: Mamadi Camara, a man in his thirties, was on the scene during the attempted murder after being arrested by agent Vig. Mr. Camara was wrongly arrested in connection with the attack, then ultimately exonerated.
Ali Ngarukiye will then be arrested in March 2021 for the attempted murder of the police officer.
The majority of his interventions at work go well, Agent Vig said in cross-examination. Mr. Camara stands out for his aggressiveness when he challenges him, he repeated to the jury. “It’s rare that people yell at me. It can happen that people insult me, but from there to seeing the veins coming out of the neck and the eyes on fire, that rarely happens,” explained the police officer.
Me Sharon Sandiford, the defense lawyer, asked him to summarize what he was doing before the attack on January 28, 2021. He did not remember the arrests before that of Mamadi Camara. “I can’t even tell you who I intercepted before. I have no memories,” he replied.
Aftereffects after the attack
The metal bar attack left Sanjay Vig with painful scars on his head, he said Friday. No one had been arrested when Mamadi Camara was exonerated. So he was stressed not knowing who the man was who wanted to kill him.
“Was it someone who was personally angry with me? Is this someone I’ve intercepted before? Has he ever followed me after work? », Relates Agent Vig to the jury.
He returned to work at the SPVM after three months.
The police officer explains in court that he lost his second home: the Parc-Extension district where he had worked for 20 years. Since the attack which almost cost him his life, he requested a transfer to another neighborhood station. “I miss working there,” he said in his testimony. “In the situation, with the Camara family who lived there and then me who knew all the traders, I asked to change sector. »
Officer Vig also showed the jury on several occasions the process for removing his service weapon from his holster, a scene never before seen at the Montreal courthouse.
“The weapon is not loaded, it was secured by the constables,” assured judge François Dadour.
Defense cross-examination continues Monday.