Montrealers rally around family of man who died after police operation in Saint-Michel
Abisay Cruz was the 2nd person to die after two Montreal police interventions within 12 hours
WARNING: This story contains descriptions and video of police using force against an individual.
A crowd of people made their distrust of Montreal's police corp known Sunday afternoon as they marched toward the Saint-Michel police post, just a few blocks south of where Abisay Cruz died on March 30.
His was the second death following an operation by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) in less than 12 hours that weekend. Quebec's police watchdog, known by its French acronym BEI, has launched investigations into both cases.
"The residents of this neighbourhood are anxious," said community organizer Stéphanie Germain, speaking in French at the start of the march. It began in front of the residence where police were dispatched near the intersection of Pie-IX Boulevard and 47th Street.
Members of Cruz's family stood at a distance behind her, opting not to speak due to the ongoing BEI investigation.
Some wore balaclavas and black hoodies with a picture of Cruz smiling and holding a cake on his 29th birthday, which he celebrated less than two weeks before he died.
"We were told things would get better, but today we're afraid," Germain said. "Unfortunately, today we ask ourselves what is the role of police if not to protect."
"The silence from the SPVM is heavy today."
Maymolina Umaña emigrated to Montreal from El Salvador and worked with Cruz's mother for five years. At Sunday's march, she told CBC the community feels the family's pain.
"Leaving our countries to a country where they give us residence [and] refuge, to then die in that way and at 29 years old, a young man, it's to close the door on a whole life as much for him as for his family," she said in Spanish.
Protesters continued to march past the police branch before turning back and gathering in front of the residence where the intervention took place. During the march, protesters threw pyrotechnics into the air at various points.
SPVM spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils says police arrested six people – four for armed assault against an officer and two for assault also against an officer. She says nobody was injured.
Police began to disperse the crowd around 5 p.m. and the event ended around 9 p.m.
What we know about Cruz's last moments
On March 30 at 8:06 a.m., a call was placed to 911 reporting a person in crisis behind a residence, according to initial information released by the BEI.
Montreal police officers arrived a few minutes later, and an altercation occurred between officers and a man at the scene and officers eventually restrained him.
The BEI says the man, who was later identified as Cruz, suffered a "malaise" and lost consciousness. He was given first-aid and transported to hospital where he was declared dead, according to the BEI.
Bystanders that morning caught some of the events on video and they have since been shared widely on social media. In one video, shared by WSC Montreal to Instagram, the unidentified person holding the camera says they saw officers hit Cruz while he was sitting down. In that video, that person was filming the scene from a neighbouring balcony.
The video shows two officers holding Cruz against the ground on a balcony, one of them kneeling against his back telling him to calm down.
Cruz is lying on his front with his hands behind his back and sounds distressed. A third officer is trying to bust down the apartment door. Eventually three more officers climb up to the balcony.
On Sunday, Germain said the lack of information around what exactly happened has created a lot of anxiety in the community. The BEI traditionally releases little information until its investigation is complete.
Germain said the family is asking for answers and justice.
Germain says she was reflecting on the work she and other community workers do in Saint-Michel.
"We work so hard on one side so for us to see a tragedy like this happen at the hands of the SPVM, for us it's like all the efforts we put in go to waste," she said.
Protesters express little faith in BEI investigation
Cruz was one of three people who died following a police intervention in the province on the same weekend at the end of March.
The first case happened Saturday evening in downtown Montreal. Another person died after an intervention from police in Quebec City on Sunday evening, March 30. The BEI is investigating all three cases.
The BEI investigation into Cruz's death provides little reassurance, says Alexandre Popovic with the Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse.
He attended a separate vigil in downtown Montreal later Sunday held for the three men who died.
For Popovic, what he saw in the video of Cruz's arrest amounted to police brutality.
"We don't know the exact cause of death right now but for me one thing is really clear, if it wasn't for the SPVM, Mr. Cruz would still be alive today," said Popovic.
"I fail to see the justification of all this brutality."
Popovic points to the BEI's low conviction rate ever since the independent body began investigating deaths and serious injuries caused during police interventions in 2016.
Out of its 446 investigations, including 41 currently ongoing, only 2 have resulted in legal proceedings, according to the BEI's statistics.
Tari Ajadi, an assistant professor of political science at McGill University, says that reaction from Popovic and other community members is understandable.
"At a pretty fundamental level, people think that the game is rigged and if you look at the outcome they have every reason to think that," he said. "Even if the BEI is trying to conduct an 'objective' investigation, it's doing so on a backdrop of massive inequity and injustice."
He says the BEI model should be redesigned, to avoid having former police officers investigate current officers. He said the investigations should lead to more change within the police forces themselves — something he says he hasn't seen yet.
Ajadi says society needs to fundamentally question the role of police in cases involving people in distress.
"At the end of the day, when you have an officer or a group of officers around a person in crisis and they're the ones meeting that person in crisis, you already have the context for a deadly situation to occur," he said.
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With files from Paula Dayan-Perez and Radio-Canada