Family of black man shot dead by police in Repentigny, Que. Blames racism for his death

[ad_1]

The family of a man from Repentigny, Que., Who died Sunday after police shot him in the stomach, blame anti-black racism in the city’s police force for his death and demand justice.

Marie-Mireille Bence, the victim’s mother, called the police on Sunday morning to ask them to bring her son, Jean Ren Junior Olivier, 37, to the hospital because he suffered from a mental health problem.

“He told me he saw people around him, people who wanted to hurt him,” Bence told reporters alongside his family at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Instead of helping him, Bence said, six police officers came to his door and shot him in the stomach. When the police arrived, he was holding a table knife, but the family said he had dropped it.

“He threw the knife on the ground and that’s when they shot him. They shot him three times,” Bence said.

“They are criminals. They killed my son,” she said. “I called them for help and they showed up and killed him. I find that absurd because there were other ways to deal with it, to bring it under control.”

Kayshawn Olivier, the victim’s son, wonders why the police shot his father in the stomach three times instead of using other non-lethal measures. (Sarah Leavitt / CBC)

Quebec police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Bureau (BEI), is investigating the shooting. He said Repentigny police responded to a 911 call shortly after 7:30 am for a “confused and disoriented” person who was allegedly armed with a knife in a residential area.

According to Bence, she and her brother asked Olivier to give them the knife. When she refused, she called the police, stating that she wanted help transporting him to the hospital.

“I didn’t want him to hurt himself, but look where it left me,” she said.

“Blacks have no justice”

When the police arrived, Bence said, they asked him and his brother to come in and lock the door. She said she did as she was told, only to hear gunshots.

Then an officer came to the door to ask if Olivier had any mental health issues, she said. The officer offered to accompany her to the Royal Victoria Hospital for shock treatment, which she refused.

Dolmine Laguerre, the victim’s cousin, said her family are now looking for answers and accountability for the shooting.

“Blacks don’t have justice these days,” Laguerre said. “We are not safe in Repentigny … our skin color speaks for us.”

WATCH | Victim’s cousin says black people are not safe in Repentigny: Dolmine Laguerre, victim’s cousin, says black people are not safe in Repentigny and demands accountability for the shooting. 0:51

Bence wonders why the police shot his son in the stomach instead of aiming at his leg or using a Taser to subdue him.

“He is not violent. He did not put anyone’s life in danger,” she said.

Bence said that after what happened to her son, she completely lost faith in the police.

“Tomorrow, if I have something, do you think I’ll call 911? Never,” she said. “I’d rather die in my corner than call them back.”

“The Repentigny police, they don’t want to see black people,” Bence said. “911 is not for black people.”

CBC News has solicited comments from Repentigny and the Government of Quebec. Last year, Repentigny police hired a consulting firm to help address persistent racial profiling issues.

In a statement released on Sunday, the city said: “We understand that this situation can be particularly difficult for blacks who already have a great deal of apprehension about our service.”

Quebec Minister for the Fight against Racism, Benoit Charette, as well as Minister of Public Security Genevive Guilbault refused to comment on the incident while the BEI is investigating.

A story of profiling

The incident comes after a series of racial profiling complaints against Repentigny police.

In July, the Quebec Human Rights Commission found that police had racially discriminated against Leslie Blot, a black man who was arrested, handcuffed and fined in 2017 while blowing up balloons for his children in the passenger seat of a car outside their home.

In its decision, the commission said that Repentigny police had made Blot a “victim of discrimination, in the form of profiling, based on the intersectionality of the grounds of race, color and sex.”

This is the fourth time that the Human Rights Commission has spoken out against Repentigny.

During a brief press conference Monday afternoon, the Repentigny police department said it wanted to “rebuild bridges with the black community”.

“The sensitivity may not be as present as we would like it to be,” said Police Chief Helen Dion. Racial profiling is a pervasive problem, she said, and the force works with organizations and strategizes to ensure police interventions are free from bias and discrimination.

Dion said Olivier’s fatal shooting is the first of its kind in the history of the service and that the hearts of its members are with his family.

Following the decision against Repentigny in the Blot affair in July, the City indicated in a press release that it was developing an action plan, had embarked on a process of “organizational transformation” and would announce a series of concrete measures during the summer.

The Repentigny police department says it wants to “rebuild bridges with the black community”. (Mathieu Wagner / Radio-Canada)

But Fo Niemi, director general of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations in Montreal, said Olivier’s death would worsen the rift between residents of Repentigny and the police.

“The situation could have been resolved differently and it escalated into something really tragic,” he said.

“The question is whether we can really rely on the EIB monitoring agency to conduct the investigation? Because the agency has not done very well in terms of transparency and in terms of delivering the kind of results that a lot of people are waiting. “

For more stories about the experiences of black Canadians, from anti-black racism to success stories within the black community, check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

(SRC)

[ad_2]