Parents of 28-year-old killed by Montreal police in 2017 want evidence re-examined

MONTREAL — The family of a Quebec man killed by Montreal police in 2017 called on the province’s justice minister on Monday for a new, independent examination of the evidence in the case, and a review of the Crown’s decision not to lay charges against the officers involved.

Koray Kevin Celik’s parents issued their request at a news conference alongside a civil rights group and anti-police-brutality activists, a day before a provincial ethics hearing is set to begin for the Montreal officers involved in the fatal altercation.

François Mainguy, a lawyer for Celik’s parents, said his clients want the province to set up “an independent committee” to re-examine the evidence in the case and “reconsider the opportunity to lay criminal charges against the police officers.”

Celik’s parents — June Tyler and Cesur Celik — have previously asked Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to reopen the case, but he has so far refused. In 2023, he declined to intervene and referred the matter to prosecutors, who refused to re-examine the evidence.

The office of Jolin-Barrette on Monday referred questions to the Crown prosecutor’s office, which did not immediately respond.

On March 6, 2017, Celik’s parents called police to their home in western Montreal because they were worried he would drive while intoxicated. Celik, 28, had consumed pain medication prescribed by his dentist and had drunk alcohol.

Cesur Celik told reporters Monday that his son, a medical student, had been in crisis that day and had wanted to leave the house to find sleep medication ahead of an exam.

Celik was unarmed, in his bedroom and had calmed down when the police arrived. An officer immediately went into the room to confront him, leading to an altercation. Four police officers tried to subdue Celik with force, and his parents say they witnessed officers repeatedly beat their son with their feet and knees before he stopped breathing and was in cardiorespiratory arrest.

He was pronounced dead in hospital.

In April 2019, the Crown declined to lay charges against the officers, based on an investigation by Quebec’s police watchdog, Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, or BEI.

A coroner’s report into Celik’s death last April found that officers had “provoked” the violent altercation between themselves and Celik, and that they were unprepared when they showed up at the family home. The coroner said that had police planned their intervention better and collected all the relevant information about what was happening in the Celik household, “the outcome could have been quite different.”

All four responding officers testified during the inquest that they had feared for their lives during the intervention.

The family continues to denounce the investigation by the province’s police watchdog and the decision by prosecutors not to lay charges.

A Quebec court ruling sided with the family — that the watchdog had committed a fault by issuing a news release that only gave the police officers’ version of events. The judgment noted that the media release was neither neutral nor impartial, and that it’s not the agency’s role to justify police actions but to conduct an independent investigation.

The ruling was upheld on appeal at the end of last year.

In a letter to the justice minister, Celik’s parents say the Court of Appeal made it clear that the BEI prevented prosecutors from adequately playing their role in determining whether criminal charges should be laid, “which is why it is essential that the evidence relating to Koray’s death be re-examined by independent prosecutors.”

The letter notes the BEI investigation didn’t accept the version of events of Celik’s parents, who were eye witnesses to what happened.

“It’s been more than seven years that we are pursuing,” Cesur Celik said. “And we will not go away, I promise you that.”

Mainguy noted there is a precedent for re-examining cases in which officers who kill are cleared of wrongdoing. In February 2014, five-year-old Nicolas Thorne-Belance was in a vehicle that was struck by an unmarked police cruiser. The boy died in hospital a few days later.

Prosecutors initially decided against charging the officer who had been driving the cruiser, but new testimony led the Liberal justice minister at the time to request an independent assessment of the evidence. That examination resulted in the officer, Patrick Ouellet, being charged and found guilty on one count of dangerous driving causing death.

The Celiks are also suing the City of Montreal and the Urgences-santé ambulance service, in a case that is still making its away through the courts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2024.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press