Eighty-one Quebecers have been shot by police in the past 20 years, according to an investigation by the To have to, who consulted all the coroner’s files concerning the deaths which occurred during police interventions. Our analysis made it possible to draw a composite portrait of the typical victim: a 38-year-old man, armed with a knife in half the cases, in crisis, struggling with a mental health disorder and potentially intoxicated. Shot on 1er Last August by the police, Jean René Junior Olivier corresponds almost in every way to this description.
“There’s someone in the car, he’s coming to get me. Jean René Junior Olivier was in the middle of a crisis when he allegedly took a steak knife from a kitchen drawer to defend himself against those who wanted him harm. Worried by the hallucinations of her 37-year-old son, Marie-Mireille Bence called 911 to be taken to hospital. The intervention that followed instead cost the life of his eldest, who died under the bullets of the police in Repentigny.
The investigation of To have to shows that 70% of those killed by police had a known mental health problem, had suicidal thoughts or made disturbing comments.
Sitting in front of the window through which Jean René Junior Olivier said he saw “people”, his mother will never be able to forget her appeal to the authorities. “I told them ‘My son is not doing well, he has a knife and he has visions’,” said the lady, who specified that she wanted him to be taken “to a psychiatric hospital”.
“I thought I saw an ambulance arrive and not six or eight policemen with guns,” she breathes, her voice faded, incomprehension in her eyes.
As in more than half of the files consulted by The duty, Mr. Olivier was holding a knife in his hand when the police arrived.
Mme Bence believes that his son is not the threatening man who may have been portrayed. “I did not hide [qu’il avait un couteau], I told 911, but the knife is a steak knife, I have several like that. […] My boy, he’s tall, but not strong [et on va me dire que] six or eight policemen weren’t able to subdue him? There is the Taser, the cayenne pepper, why, why [ils ont tiré] ? “
The Independent Investigations Bureau (BEI) mandated to shed light on this case mentioned that Mr. Olivier was outside the house when the police arrived and allegedly fled on foot while the police tried to talk to him. Cayenne pepper was allegedly used “without success” by the police, who then unsheathed their weapon and fired “several shots”.
“He was not threatening”
Over the course of the coroner’s reports consulted, the police often say that they wanted to put an end to the threat, whether to them or to the people present during the interventions.
What puts Mme Bence in rage is that the drama took place in the early morning when the street was deserted. “It was 7:30 am on a Sunday, there was no one in the street, he was not threatening,” she says. “It’s killing me inside me, was it me who called to kill my son?” “
Mr. Olivier was shot dead in front of the garage door of the residence of Daniel Nuckle, a neighbor. “I just heard a gunshot, a big boom. I opened the curtains and I saw lots of police and ambulance workers who were between my car and my garage door, ”he testifies.
Mme Bence wonders about the treatment of his son, believing that he has been treated like a criminal rather than a sick person.
It was not the first time that Jean René Junior Olivier experienced an episode of hallucinations, she confides. About four years ago, when they were in the car, he would have started to get agitated because he said he was followed by people who wanted to attack him. From her recollection, which she admits to be imprecise, he went to the hospital, but was not diagnosed and was reportedly released the same day.
Like 45.7% of people who have died since 2001, Mr. Olivier had a history with the police. Mme Bence confirms that his son was known to the police and believes it may have influenced them. “I gave his name, his date of birth, so maybe they have checked, but still everyone in life made mistakes, my son in the last two years he was working, he wasn’t on the street walking around doing anything. “
A person’s background can in fact be checked by the police before arriving at the scene of an intervention.
Mr. Olivier was covered by a life order prohibiting him from having any firearms in his possession. He had served several prison sentences between 2006 and 2019 for a home robbery and possession of a prohibited weapon. The Repentigny police, however, did not specify whether they had this information at the time of the intervention.
A story repeating itself?
Deputy Chief Coroner Me Luc Malouin is not surprised by the data compiled by The duty. “Your report is mine,” notes in an interview the one who must submit the expected report in early December on the death of Pierre Coriolan, who died in June 2017. The man, who suffered from mental health problems, was armed with a knife kitchen and a screwdriver. He was shot dead by police following a 911 call made by a neighbor who heard a lot of noise in his apartment. He was alone and visibly agitated.
Like many of his colleagues who have looked into these deaths, Mr.e Malouin has issued recurring recommendations regarding police interventions with people in crisis.
In a previous report on the death of Alain Magloire, killed in February 2014 in downtown Montreal, Coroner Malouin pointed out that one of the police officers on board one of the patrol cars specialized in intervention with people in crisis ( RIC). The biochemical researcher who became homeless because of mental illness was chased by the SPVM police and brandished a hammer at the patrollers before being shot.
“I consider that better communication between the police officers would have been preferable and that it would perhaps have allowed the RIC police officer to attempt an intervention, even if the RIC trained police officer must first act as a police officer and secure a situation before try the social approach, ”he wrote.
Less than a year later, it was René Gallant’s turn to be killed. Called on a scene of domestic violence, the police shoot the 45-year-old man who comes up to them with a long kitchen knife. “The police did not attempt to negotiate with Mr. Gallant. They ordered him to comply by shouting and pointing a gun in his direction, ”says coroner Julie A. Blondin, who also takes up the recommendation of the public inquiry into the death of Alain Magloire.
“The approach of the police should be adapted and different in the presence of an aggressive person, because he may be intoxicated or ill,” she notes. René Gallant was heavily intoxicated if we are to believe the toxicological analyzes in the file.
The case of Stéphane Bouffard, 41, also led Coroner Pierre Belisle to issue recommendations in this direction. At the time of the tragedy, in August 2016, Mr. Bouffard was holding a kitchen knife in one hand, but was not threatening neither his wife, nor the police officers who shot him. “This intervention lasted only a few minutes, because the police were caught facing a person apparently in crisis who did not respond to the usual orders,” said Coroner Belisle. He recommends in particular that the training in de-escalation of the police “be the subject of periodic upgrades so that the police officers develop reflexes … as it is considered necessary in the handling of firearms”.
Coroner Malouin is preparing to make his recommendations on the intervention which resulted in the death of Pierre Coriolan in June 2017. Last August, during the public hearings, he had already spoken in favor of ” mandatory annual training on mental health, intervention with a person in crisis, violence de-escalation and communication.
The second part of the To have to Tuesday will focus on the analysis of the national model for the use of force during intervention with people in crisis.