Sister of Montreal man who died while illegally jailed at Bordeaux wants video footage released 

Sarafina Dennie still doesn’t understand why or how her younger brother died – and she hopes the release of relevant video footage will answer some questions.

Dennie’s brother Nicous D’Andre Spring died at Montreal’s Bordeaux jail after an altercation with jail guards on Christmas Eve, a day after he was supposed to be released to come home to his family.

“I can’t stop crying,” she said. “I don’t sleep. I don’t eat. It’s very frustrating. It’s hurting me deeply.

“What they did to him was very cruel. They didn’t have to go so far. I mean, he was just 21 years old, just starting his life.”

Dennie described her brother as a quiet person who loved boxing, music and playing with her young children.

“He’s not there to even take them to the park, play with them, like none of that. It hurts. We deserve to get answers,” she said.

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Spring was illegally detained at Montreal’s Bordeaux jail on Dec. 24 when guards fitted his head with a spit hood and pepper-sprayed him twice.

Quebec’s Public Security Department has described Spring’s detention as “illegal” because he was ordered by a judge to be released on Dec. 23 but was still behind bars the next day when he suffered injuries leading to his death.

Dennie said the family has received little information from investigators about the moments leading up to his death, and that much of what they learned has come from reading news online.

She said they hadn’t heard from Spring and hadn’t known his release had been ordered, so they didn’t know known how close he’d come to making it home for Christmas.

Calling for release of video footage

Now, she is calling on authorities to release any relevant video footage of the incident to her family, and said she wants the public to see it as well.

“My family is demanding the video to be released to us and also to the public, because it’s been over a month now that we’ve been waiting for answers and we’re not getting anything,” said Dennie. “And I think it will be quite fair for us to have those information as to what happened to my brother.

“Getting answers will really help us to understand what happened to him, how it happened and why it happened.”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says video footage exists, and that it should be released to the family.

“Reportedly in the case of Mr. Spring, there is footage of what happened, what the circumstances are,” said the group’s executive director Noa Mendelsohn Aviv. “There are reports of the use of pepper spray and spit hood, but we haven’t seen that. We don’t know that. But we know that closed institutions have surveillance video throughout and that footage should be available.”

Mendelsohn Aviv said there are many questions that need to be answered, including why Spring was still in detention when a judge had ordered him released, and why guards seemingly used the potentially dangerous combination of a spit hood and pepper spray.

Aftermath of Tyre Nichols death in U.S.

Calls to release the video come after authorities in the United States released video footage Friday showing Tyre Nichols being beaten by five Memphis police officers. The footage emerged one day after the officers were charged with murder in Nichols’ death.

“It was very traumatizing to see what what they did to him (Nichols),” said Dennie. “And also happy that the family got to see that video to understand how they brutally damaged the young man. I know the family how they’re feeling right now.”

Dennie said Spring was well-loved, both in his Montreal community and within his family, who came from the Caribbean country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines seeking a better life.

One of her last memories, she said, was of him showing up to help carry an oven into her home, which she remembers because she knows how much he loved Caribbean food.

Dennie says the last month without her brother has been a nightmare, which can perhaps begin to end with some answers.

“It’s something that I can never heal from. I just take it day by day and every day it hurts even more so.

“We need answers and we need justice for my brother.”

—With files from Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press