Mamadi Fara III Camara, initially accused — then completely cleared — of attacking a police officer in January 2021, testified at the trial of the man who now faces this charge.
“There was a shot!” » he is heard saying to the 911 dispatcher, a phone call which was entered into evidence.
It was Mr. Camara who called emergency services on January 28, 2021, when the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) officer was attacked. He himself had just been stopped by the same police officer, Sanjay Vig, for allegedly using his cell phone while driving.
The 34-year-old man was waiting for his ticket in his car when he suddenly heard two people on the ground fighting.
The policeman was asking for help, he recounted at the trial of Ali Ngarukiye, accused of assaulting the policeman, disarming him and shooting him.
After calling 911, Mr. Camara was told by a police officer who came to assist him that he could go home and that he would receive his report by mail. But he didn’t have time, he told Judge François Dadour of the Superior Court on Monday morning. A police officer intercepted him again as he was walking towards his home: he told him that he could not return. Mr. Camara explained to the judge that he then returned to his car and that the police officer, looking at his license plate, shouted: “We have our guy! We have our guy! »
“Then several police officers came and pointed their guns at me. »
He told them: “It’s not me! I did not do anything ! »
He spent six days in detention before being released. The charges against him were later withdrawn.
In her opening statement to the jury, Crown prosecutor Ms.e Jasmine Guillaume said that police officer Vig had wrongly identified Mr. Camara as his attacker because he was the last person he saw before being hit on the head with a metal bar.
And also: the two men look alike, she said last Friday.
While both men are Black and slender, Mr. Camara said Monday that Ali Ngarukiye is “taller and fatter than me” and also that his skin is darker than his.
Mr. Camara is a Crown witness. He is currently being cross-examined by the accused’s lawyer.