The Office of Independent Investigations (BEI) is to investigate after a police response to a man found dead after barricading himself in Greenfield Park on Sunday.
The Longueuil agglomeration police department (SPAL) indicated on its Facebook page that it had intervened in the afternoon after “a family dispute” at the end of which a man barricaded himself in his residence on Pendale Street.
“He would be in possession of a bladed weapon and he would also have started a fire in his home,” said SPAL. A dozen neighboring residences were evacuated.
The 50-year-old man was later found dead inside, the BEI said in a statement. According to preliminary information, he was alone in the residence and died of self-inflicted injuries, said Guy Lapointe, spokesperson for the BEI.
SPAL declined to comment after the BEI launched its investigation. An independent investigation is held in particular when a person “dies, sustains a serious injury or is injured by a firearm used by a police officer, during a police intervention”, indicates the Police Act.
The BEI has conducted 11 other investigations after events on the territory of Longueuil since 2016, indicates its website. Two of them are in progress, one led to the submission of a report to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP). None have led to charges so far.