The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) “dissociated itself” Wednesday from the comments made Wednesday morning by a former Laval police officer and analyst invited to comment on the murder of Thomas Trudel last Sunday, in the Saint-Michel district.
“This morning, a person gave an interview to Salut Bonjour in connection with the 31st homicide in Montreal in 2021,” the Montreal police force wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday afternoon. “The SPVM wishes to dissociate itself from the unacceptable comments made during this interview. This person does not speak on our behalf and has never been in the employ of the Service, ”adds the publication.
This morning, a person gave an interview to Salut Bonjour in connection with the 31st homicide that occurred in Mtl in 2021.
the #SPVM wishes to dissociate himself from unacceptable remarks made during this interview. This person does not speak on our behalf and has never been employed by the Service.
– Police Montreal (@SPVM) November 17, 2021
The analyst in police intervention and former policeman of the Police Department of the City of Laval and former agent of the Police Department of the City of Laval, Daniel Cléroux, gave an interview Wednesday morning to the program Salut Bonjour, broadcast by TVA , in order to react to the murder of Thomas Trudel. The 16-year-old was shot dead on Sunday night near his house, at the corner of rue Villeray and 20e Avenue, in the Saint-Michel district. A tragic event that shook the residents of the area as well as the political elite, which in particular demanded better regulation of handguns by the federal government.
In a short sequence of the interview widely relayed Wednesday on social networks, we hear Daniel Cléroux affirm that the young man, with white skin, “does not have at all the profile of someone who is part of a gang, one by nationality ”. Many Internet users then associated these comments with “racism” and “racial profiling”.
At present, the SPVM investigation is continuing to elucidate the circumstances of Thomas Trudel’s death. The police force, which has not made any arrests in this case so far, do not know the motives for the murder. The victim, who attended the Montreal school Joseph-François-Perrault, was also not known to the police.