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Quebec coroner orders inquiry into fatal police shooting of Montreal man
by Jonathan
Montpetit, Canadian Press
Source: Metro News June 3, 2008
Source: Metro News June 3, 2008
MONTREAL - Quebec's chief coroner ordered a public inquiry Tuesday into the death of a Muslim man who was gunned down by police more than two years ago as he was leaving a mosque.
Mohammed Anas Bennis, 25, was shot twice in December 2005 by a Montreal officer helping provincial police carry out a search warrant in a fraud investigation.
Bennis wasn't a suspect in the investigation and police claimed at the time he stabbed the officer in the neck and leg for "no known motive."
Quebec's Public Security Department has since steadfastly refused to release the police report into the shooting.
"The family is happy they called the inquiry, we are just sad it took them almost three years," said Bennis' sister, Najlaa.
The Bennis family has long been skeptical of the official version of what happened and were joined by several community groups in calling for an inquiry.
"The official version was never clear and raised several questions about the number of bullets and the angle of the bullets," Najlaa Bennis said.
A spokesperson for the Public Security Department said it would co-operate with the inquiry, but refused to comment about whether the police report would be made public.
Bennis family lawyer Alain Arsenault predicted the parameters of the inquiry would force the department to table the report.
"In ambiguous circumstances we have to make an evaluation of what happened," Arsenault said. "They say it was a legitimate defence. I don't have a problem with that, but can they prove it?"
No officers were ever charged in the death.
A Crown prosecutor from Rimouski, more than 500 kilometres northeast of Montreal, made the decision not to press charges based on an investigation by Quebec City police.
That report was never released to the family because, according to the government, it contains confidential information.
" How can we have a confidence in a justice system if the police aren't seriously investigated in a public manner when there is the death of a person," Arsenault said.
The only public information about Bennis' death comes from a 2006 coroner's report citing the official version that Bennis stabbed the officer for no reason.
Najlaa said it was unlike her brother, who ran a small Internet company, to suddenly turn violent.
"It doesn't match his profile at all," she said.
Community groups, along with the victim's family, have speculated in the past that Bennis was subject to racial profiling.
The inquiry is expected to begin in September.