Montreal man wrongfully arrested sues city, crown prosecutors for $790K

MONTREAL (CityNews) — Mamadi Fara Camara is suing the the city of Montreal and crown prosecutors for illegal arrest and detainment, excessive police force, insults by officers and a “botched investigation based on racial profiling.”

Camara and six others are involved in the lawsuit, including his wife, in-laws and neighbours. They are asking for a total of $1.2 million in damages.

The incident happened Jan. 28 when Camara, a Black man, was pulled over for what he says was the use of a cellphone, which he denies. Camara claims he was in his vehicle, waiting for officer Sanjay Vig, who was in the process of ticketing him, when Vig was attacked and his gun taken.

The lawsuit says Vig told officers Camara was the last person he was with before his attack.

Camara alleges he was pulled from his car window onto the ground by police who arrived on the scene. He was eventually able to go home, as some officers, he says, understood he was a witness, not the perpetrator. But Camara was arrested later that night.

The 31-year-old spent six days in a detention center. He was charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer and disarming a police officer.

Camara was ultimately exonerated and cleared of all charges days later, and Montreal police publicly apologized to him.

Camara is specifically asking for nearly $800,000:

• $300,000 moral damages
• $250,000 for serious damage to his reputation
• $120,000 for illegal detention for six days
• $120,000 financial consequences

Camara is a trained engineer. He supervised a lab at Ecole Polytechnique at the time of the incident. He was barred from campus during the criminal proceedings.