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One dead after Montreal cop opens fire on teens
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by Rob Peters | August 10, 2008 at 05:15 pm
1475 views | 21 Recommendations | 13 comments
Montreal Police have yet to explain why it was necessary for an officer to open fire on three teenagers in a Montreal park last night, killing one of them.
Police said officers initiating an arrest were surrounded by about 20 youths before the shooting occurred, but an eyewitness put the number between six and 10.
Investigators have given few clues as to what prompted the shooting. Some of the young people were said to have rushed the officers.
MONTREAL — A police patrol in a Montreal park turned ugly Saturday night when an officer opened fire on three young people, killing one man and wounding two others.
An 18-year-old man, identified by his sister as Freddy Alberto Villanueva, died from his wounds in hospital. The other two, an 18 and a 20-year-old, are reported to be in stable condition.
Montreal police say the officers were trying to arrest an individual during a routine police intervention in Henri Bourassa Park in the Montreal district of Montreal North when they were surrounded by a group of about 20 youths. A few individuals allegedly broke away from the group and rushed the officers.
According to police, it was then that one of the officers opened fire.
The officers were not wounded in the incident.
Mr. Villanueva's sister, Julissa, said in an interview from her home in the Montreal suburb of Laval, that the family is waiting for answers.
“We only know what we see in the news, in the newspapers, that's all,” she said, breaking into tears as she spoke about her brother, a student who wanted become a mechanic.
Samuel Medeiros, 18, who was at a nearby skate park last night, said he saw Villanueva and a group of between six to 10 others playing marbles in the parking lot behind the arena at the park around 7:00 last night when they were approached by two police officers. Medeiros said he does not know the individuals involved.
Medeiros said police approached the group and spoke with Dany Villanueva, 21, the victim's brother. Dany Villanueva and police exchanged verbal barbs when they tried to search him, said Medeiros, who at this point had made his way to the parking lot to see what the commotion was about.
Medeiros, who captured the aftermath of the incident on his cellphone, said Dany Villanueva was being aggressive with police who tried to arrest him and, when he resisted, pinned him to the ground.
A woman who lives kitty-corner to the park, and who knew the Villanueva family, corroborated Medeiros' story. The woman did not want to give her name.
A few witnesses said it was the female police officer who fired the shots. The police would not confirm that only acknowledging that two officers - a male and female - were present.
In addition to the man who died, two other young men suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were sent to hospital.
The provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec, has taken over the investigation into the shooting.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (13)
at 17:54 on August 10th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 18:47 on August 10th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 19:11 on August 10th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. 6-10 is quite a gap for such a small group. And I am skeptical about the report of the group playing marbles. Is playing marbles in large groups a normal thing for 18-20 year olds in Canada? Though, nobody should have been killed, being greatly outnumbered and surrounded is an extremely tense situation. Add being attacked and it is easy to see that an officer would do everything to make sure it was not them lying dead. More information is clearly needed to know if the officers were in the right on this.
at 07:26 on August 11th, 2008
the state has no right to kill our youth. there is a tradition in montreal of police killing young people, as the expression goes: the darker the skin the quicker the trigger. our jeans-wearing cops tend to confuse movies w/ reality and lack training and experience when accessing the actual danger of a situation. when in doubt draw your weapon and fire into the crowd.
fuck the police.
at 21:17 on August 14th, 2009
You dumb-ass. These "youth" charged police. At 21, someone is pretty much adult-size and CAN harm someone. Youth or not, don't attack police.
at 19:43 on August 10th, 2008
They were playing dice.. something alot of young men play (related to gambling) i work with troubled youth. I agree with zichi, the police should have intervened differently. There to trigger happy, Especially when it comes to visible minorities, thats the truth. R.I.P to all those killed by those who are called peace officers.
at 21:35 on August 10th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. Not much to comment on till we get all the info, lets hope it was 20 who swarmed the officers and not a couple, but then we do not know the whole story either.
at 21:35 on August 10th, 2008
Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Absolutely ! Very bad call by some inexperienced rookies who, hopefully will not ever have an opportunity to repeat this type of viscious blunder again ...
at 00:55 on August 11th, 2008
This brings to mind the revolts that broke out in France in 2005, after two youths had died escaping police.
"When a revolt breaks out you can’t ask yourself ‘how could it happen?’ but rather ‘how is it possible that it doesn’t happen everywhere, all the time?’. But each time a revolt breaks out the first operation that takes place is an attempt to categorise it. One wonders who the rebels are, where they come from and what they want. The research soon starts on names, identities, and right categories..."
"In fact, the process of identification, besides presenting the structural phenomenon of the present social order as if it were incidental, aims at separating and dividing the outcasts from all the others – at the same time separating these others from themselves and their active potential. In other words, outcasts have an atavistic right to revolt as anger, desperation and a feeling of injustice belong expressly to them. But you, who are privileged in spite of everything and who enjoy part of the welfare guaranteed by the society, what do you want? In the ghettos in towns, the banlieues of Paris and the suburbs of the world, life is uprooted, empty, encircled in the space of social, material and existential alienation, and full of desperation and metaphysical boredom. But not your life! Your life is rich and enjoyable, full of possibilities and perspectives, wellbeing and passion. Your life? Our life? Excuse me, what are we talking about?"
-From "The Scum" by Filippo Argenti
http://325collective.com/library_nights-of-rage.html
at 11:17 on August 11th, 2008
Cops need to start using rubber bullets.
at 08:35 on August 12th, 2008
In a class society that will be inevitable. After all, global capitalism and Soviet Union are but variations on the same theme.
at 16:27 on August 13th, 2008
FUCK THE POLICE!!
at 21:14 on August 14th, 2009
I wish police would kill fucking YOs like that more often. These people listen to gangsta-rap that praises theft, rape and drug money, carry guns, etc.
Strange, these YOs shoot people outside bars, that's fine, but they complain if police shoots.