The Independent Investigations Bureau (BEI) is launching a second investigation in less than a month into an intervention by the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ). A stabbing that occurred Thursday evening in Beauport raises questions, since the police arrested and then released the accused a few hours before he attacked his spouse.
Shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday evening, the Quebec police intervened for the first time in a residence on rue Sainte-Cécile. A marital conflict escalates and requires their presence.
On the spot, the officers decide to arrest a 51-year-old man for assault, break and enter and breach of probation. Less than two hours later, the police arrested the same individual, in the same place, this time for having committed a stabbing.
Between the two events, the SPVQ released the suspect on a promise to appear, notably prohibiting him from communicating with his spouse. According to information collected by the BEI, the man left the post in a taxi “under the supervision of the police”.
11 p.m. rings and a new call comes in at 9-1-1. The police must intervene at the same address rue Sainte-Cécile, this time for a seriously injured woman. Arrived on the scene, the police find that it is the same victim. The man they had released a few hours earlier is also in the same place.
The 46-year-old woman suffered severe but life-threatening injuries. Her alleged attacker remains in custody.
The BEI specifies that it is dispatching seven investigators to shed light on this story. The Sûreté du Québec will conduct the parallel investigation and will act as support police in this file.
Several surveys already
The SPVQ has been the subject of several BEI investigations over the past six months. In December, the organization responsible for investigating the police opened an investigation into two muscular – and widely publicized – arrests carried out by a Quebec police officer.
Also in December, an intervention carried out on Cartier Street with a man who had asked passers-by for help because he said he feared for his safety ended in an altercation with a police officer. The 50-year-old man suffered serious injuries during the operation.
More recently, in April, it was the actions of the SPVQ in a murder case that required an investigation by the BEI. A mentally ill individual had been visited by police earlier this week at the request of his two worried parents. Officers did not deem it necessary to arrest the individual. Two days later, he killed a neighbor in the middle of the afternoon, hours after the parents obtained a court order to have their son committed.