Sûreté du Québec officials who shot and wounded a man in Kitcisakik in August will not face charges.
According to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), the evidence collected by the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) does not disclose any criminal offense. The BEI assigned six investigators to the scene, then collected the testimony of three civilian witnesses, including two paramedics. The file is now closed.
The facts came out on the night of August 1, 2021. Two pairs of patrollers responded to an emergency call in the Anishinabe community of Kitcisakik. One woman felt threatened by a drunken relative. Another call indicates that the individual is now causing trouble to neighbors.
When the first officers arrived, Mats Wayne Gunn was disturbed and charged the officers with the ax. One of the patrol boats was equipped with a body camera as part of a pilot project. He activated it from the beginning of the intervention.
First immobilized and disarmed with the help of an electric pulse weapon, the man in crisis finally got up and again charged the police who approached him to control him.
A force deemed necessary
The two officers then fired, hitting him with four bullets, but he was still able to throw his ax in their direction, without hitting them. The man was then arrested, then taken to a hospital center where he received the necessary treatment.
The DPCP concludes that the intervention was legal, that police officers first repeatedly ordered him to drop his weapons and lie on the ground, that they first used an intermediate weapon and that they do not fire just for their protection, when danger approaches. . So they used the force deemed necessary in the circumstances.
Now 34, Mats Wayne Gunn has been convicted of assaulting police officers. He was sentenced to three months in prison in September.
Source: Radio-Canada
