(Montreal) No criminal charges will be brought against the Repentigny police officers who shot and killed Jean René Junior Olivier on 1er August 2021, when the 38-year-old man was going through a serious episode of psychological distress.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) made the announcement on Thursday, in a press release, after having completed the analysis of the report produced by the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) following this sad affair.
The DPCP concludes that, in this file, “the police intervention was legal and was based mainly on the duty imposed on the police officers to ensure, from the first moments until the end of the sequence of shootings, the safety of the citizens under their protection and their own safety.
Almost all of the police intervention had been filmed by one of the paramedics who arrived quickly on the spot and the versions of the witnesses in the file essentially correspond to what the camera captured.
Armed with a knife
The case began with a call to 9-1-1, shortly after 7:30 a.m., from Mr. Olivier’s mother, Marie-Mireille Bence, who had informed the dispatcher that her son was no longer sleeping, saw people who did not exist and was in possession of a knife which he refused to part with. The lady said she feared for her safety and that of her son.
Two officers from the Service de police de la Ville de Repentigny (SPVR) arrived at the residence around 7:45 a.m., joined by two other colleagues. Knife in hand, Mr. Olivier was outside when they arrived, accompanied by a relative and a friend and was quietly heading towards the police.
On several occasions, one of the officers, as well as the two people at his side, had tried to convince him to put the knife down. A few minutes later, a fifth officer equipped with a conducted energy weapon arrived on the scene, also encouraging the man to lay down his knife.
Attack without warning
For about fifteen minutes the agents had spoken calmly to Mr. Olivier and the latter had deposited and then taken up the weapon almost immediately on several occasions.
However, around 8 a.m., the man picked up the knife on the ground and ran towards the officers who were then about five meters from him. It was at this time that the police opened fire, fatally hitting Mr. Olivier.
The paramedics had immediately carried out resuscitation maneuvers, but the death of Jean René Junior Olivier was to be noted after his admission to the hospital.
In its analysis, the DPCP recalls that the Criminal Code grants protection to a peace officer when he uses force and that this force may be “capable of causing death or serious bodily harm if he believes that it is necessary, in order to protect himself or the persons under his protection against such consequences”. He also points out that “courts have established that the assessment of force should not, however, be based on a standard of perfection”.
“Particularly imminent danger”
He argues that “the situation faced by the officers was dynamic and required constant reassessment. Moments before the shots were fired, as had been the case since the beginning of their intervention, the officers tried to convince the man to lay down his knife and walk away. […] When he takes off, he does so without hesitation and without warning. He runs straight towards the agents positioned in front of him. He has his knife in his right hand, the blade pointing forward and he runs and jumps over a short low wall to get to the officers. He is about five meters from the officers when he starts running and he lands less than a meter from the officers after the shots hit him. »
“Given the particularly imminent danger they faced, the man being armed and repeatedly refusing to obey orders, each of the two police officers involved had reasonable grounds to believe that the force applied to the man was necessary for their protection from grievous bodily harm or death and that the use of their firearm was the only way to end this threat. »
The identity of the Repentigny police officers involved in this case has never been made public.