Montreal police were ill-prepared prior to fatal altercation with Île Bizard man, coroner says
CBC
The Montreal police intervention that led to a 28-year-old man's death in the West Island was poorly planned and executed and changes to the 911 communication system should be considered, according to a coroner's report.
Koray Celik died following an altercation with four police officers at his parents' home in Île Bizard on March 6, 2017.
His parents called 911 because he had consumed alcohol along with pain pills prescribed to him and was intent on taking the wheel.
Shortly after arriving, one of the officers, Karine Bujold, followed the mother down a dimly lit hallway that led to the room where her son was — a move the coroner found questionable.
According to the report, Celik told the officer to shut off her flashlight. When the officer refused, there was a verbal altercation. As Celik approached the officer, she began to fear for her safety.
That's when she struck the 28-year-old in the left thigh with her baton, though Celik didn't budge. Three other officers stepped in and Celik was tackled to the ground.
The Celiks have maintained that officers used excessive force on their son, saying they watched as he was kicked, choked and beaten with batons until he stopped breathing.
The 28-year-old was pronounced dead in hospital about three hours later.
The final autopsy report indicates Celik died of cardio-respiratory arrest caused by intoxication.
But Dr. Yann Dazé, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Celik, told the coroner's inquiry last fall that the "cocktail" of drugs and alcohol likely would not have been lethal if Celik hadn't been in an agitated state.
In his report released Friday, coroner Luc Malouin said the officers could have benefited from information that the 911 dispatcher failed to provide them. He also said officers "missed at least two occasions" to get information that could've significantly altered the chain of events that followed.
According to the coroner, parents were calm when police showed up.
Malouin wrote that the officer, prior to approaching the 28-year-old man, could have asked questions and realized that he did not have his parents' car keys and therefore could not leave, the three were the only ones in the home and the parents were expecting paramedics to show up, not police.
Malouin said "with this information, the analysis and the urgency of the situation changes completely."
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