No criminal charges will be brought against the three police officers who fired 28 bullets – and injured two innocent people – to curb the ardor of a man who had just opened fire in their direction, in September 2020, in the Old Port of Montreal.
This was decided by the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) after analyzing the report sent to him by the Office of Independent Investigations, which had looked into the case.
The events occurred on the night of September 13, 2020, around 2 a.m., when an individual opened fire not far from the Quai de l’Horloge.
Informed of the presence of the armed man, the police drew their service weapon and ordered the suspect to lie down on the ground.
“At first he seems to comply and leans to the ground. As he runs, he suddenly turns around and shoots in the direction of [l’un des policiers]“Writes the DPCP in its decision.
Four shots were fired by the suspect, injuring a police officer, as well as a man who was behind the three patrol officers present at the scene.
Fearing for their lives, the police replied nearly thirty times before going to take shelter. The first officer fired nine times, the second five times and the last opened fire 14 times.
The suspect was hit by several projectiles, but two innocent people, who were respectively in front of the bar and on the terrace of the establishment, were also injured by the police fire.
Everyone survived their injuries, including the suspect, who was later identified as Adam Pichette, a 34-year-old man with a heavy criminal past.
According to the DPCP, the intervention carried out by the three police officers that night was “legal” and “was mainly based on the duty imposed on the police to ensure the safety and life of people”.
As for the collateral victims of this event, the DPCP believes that in the context, the use of firearms by the police “did not correspond to a criminal offence, even if this use likely led to the injuries sustained by two men”.
The use of force by the police during this intervention, which could have had much more dramatic consequences, was therefore justified, according to the DPCP.