Villanueva inquest hears from shooter

A Montreal police officer told a coroner's inquest on Tuesday that he had never used his weapon on duty until the day he shot 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva.

Villanueva's violent death on Aug. 9, 2008, sparked riots in the Montreal North borough where it happened and aggravated already strained relations between police and residents of the multicultural working-class district.

Villanueva was playing dice in a park with friends and his older brother, Dany, on a Saturday night when two police officers approached the group with an outstanding arrest warrant for Dany Villanueva. A confrontation between the men and the officers ensued in which Fredy Villanueva was fatally shot and two other men were injured.

Lapointe appeared on the stand for about two and half hours, where he testified that he had four years experience as a police officer in Montreal North and had never issued a ticket for gambling in a public space before.

He also told the court he kept a personal notebook on persons of interest in Montreal North. The inquest was shown one page of the notebook, which included a photograph of Jeffrey Sagor Metellus, one of the two other men who survived being shot in the same altercation that killed Villanueva.

Lapointe's testimony is expected to continue throughout the week.

Earlier in the day, Lapointe's partner, Stephanie Pilotte, broke into tears on the stand when asked if she might have been able to save Fredy Villanueva if she had been able to perform first aid.

Pilotte told the court she wasn't able to approach the 18 year-old because his cousin was crying hysterically and keeping her away.

She testified that Lapointe showed no emotion in the hours after the shooting.

Quebec Court Judge André Perreault, who is leading the inquest, also questioned Pilotte about the provincial protocol for incidents in which a citizen is hurt or killed in a police intervention. The directives make it clear that officers involved are required to co-operate fully with the investigation, said Perreault.

Pilotte said she was always willing to do so.

In previous testimony, the judge was told that Pilotte was never questioned by the provincial police force investigating the shooting, never separated from her partner in the hours after the shooting and was never debriefed by her station commander.

Alain Arsenault, the lawyer representing one of the two men who were shot by police in the same incident, said Pilotte's testimony makes it clear police can't be trusted to investigate each other.

"I think we have an example — I won't say a perfect example but quasi-perfect — that there is no civil control of the police," said Arsenault. "There is no one truly investigating the police."