BEI to investigate January police intervention in Montreal

Quebec’s Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) has opened an investigation into a police intervention in Montreal in late January. The announcement of the opening of the file was delayed for several months, until Thursday.

The BEI’s investigation concerns an event that occurred on January 28 at approximately 9:30 p.m. in Montreal’s LaSalle neighborhood.

At that point, police observed a vehicle that was reportedly violating the Highway Safety Code. The day after the incident, Montreal police (SPVM) reported that a driver had failed to make a mandatory stop at an intersection.

Police then turned on their patrol car’s flashing lights to intercept the vehicle, but the driver was able to evade them.

A few minutes later, the driver’s car was involved in a collision with another vehicle, resulting in several injuries.

About ten days later, the BEI received new information about the event, prompting it to launch an investigation into the police intervention. The nature of this new information has not been made public.

The existence of this investigation was only revealed on Thursday. The BEI said it chose to delay announcing this investigation by several months “so as not to disrupt the parallel investigation.”

– This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2024.