‘Killed him instead of helping’: Parents of Montrealer who died in 2017 SPVM intervention want case reopened
Posted September 23, 2024 11:27 am.
Last Updated September 23, 2024 6:24 pm.
The family of a Quebec man killed by police in 2017 is calling on the province’s justice minister to order an independent investigation after the Crown declined to charge the officers involved.
Koray Kevin Celik’s parents issued their request Monday at a news conference, a day before a Montreal police ethics hearing for some of the officers involved in his death is set to begin.
“It’s been more than seven years we’re pursuing and we will not go away,” said Cesur Celik, his father.
On March 6, 2017, Celik’s parents called police to their home in western Montreal because they were worried he would drive while intoxicated.
“To help him not drive and put himself or others in danger, we called 911,” Cesur said.
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 the unarmed man stopped breathing and was in cardiorespiratory arrest. He was pronounced dead in hospital.
“They killed him instead of helping him,” he said.
A 2023 coroner’s inquest into Celik’s death found that officers “provoked” the violent altercation between them and Celik, and that they were unprepared when they showed up at the family home.
“He was a medical student, no criminal record, he was a sportsman, he was a small businessman, one of the most valuable people I have ever seen in my life,” Cesur said. “He didn’t hit anybody, he didn’t provoke anybody.”
Celik’s parents — June Tyler and Cesur Celik — have previously asked Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to reopen the case in June 2023, but he has so far refused.
The family continues to denounce the investigation by the province’s police watchdog — Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) — 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 statement that only gave the police officers’ version of events. The ruling was upheld on appeal.
“BEI investigators chose to believe the police officers and assumed that we, the eyewitness parents, are not credible,” Cesur said.
“We’re not asking for the officers to be simply put in jail and for the key to be thrown away,” said François Mainguy, the lawyer representing the Celik family. “We’re asking for somebody who was not DPCP and who has nothing to do with BEI to review the evidence.”
In June 2023, Celik’s parents made the same request and this time around, it comes a day before a Montreal police ethics hearing is set to begin for the four officers involved.
“Even the police decided that, but the Justice Minister says no, the DPCP says no,” Cesur said.
Quebec’s director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) tells CityNews in a statement that “it is is the responsibility of the BEI to gather the evidence and submit a report to us including, among other things, witness statements.”
They say three prosecutors carried out the review of the investigation report. “These prosecutors conducted a complete and objective review of the evidence in order to assess whether it revealed the commission of criminal offenses,” reads their statement.
The DPCP says “in the light of the evidence analyzed and the applicable legal principles, the committee concluded that no prosecution would be initiated.”
Pointing to a press release issued in May 2019 following that decision, the DPCP said: “In this case, the intervention was lawful and was based primarily on the duty imposed on the police to ensure the safety of persons. Considering the imminent danger they faced and the individual’s failure to comply, the police had reasonable grounds to believe that the force applied to the man was necessary for their protection and that of the parents at the scene. Moreover, the force used by the police was not such as to cause serious injury or death.”
After a public inquiry lasting several days, coroner Luc Malouin published a report on April 11, 2023, establishing that the police officers had not applied the
principles of good intervention, that they were not justified in using so much force and that their intervention had played a determining role in Koray’s death.
The coroner considers that police officers can use the necessary force when there is an imminent risk to their safety and physical integrity, but
that, in this case, this principle and justification cannot be applied since the police officers put themselves in danger and provoked the use of force.
All four responding officers testified during the inquest that they had feared for their lives during the intervention.
The DPCP tells CityNews they recently attended the coroner’s public inquiry and “reviewed all the evidence presented.”
“It appears that no new facts have come to light that would alter the analysis of the three prosecutors committee and call into question the decision not to prosecute,” they say.
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.”
In a statement, Barrette’s office says it is up to the DPCP and not the Minister of Justice to decide whether to create an independent committee.
“The DPCP exercises the functions conferred on it by the Act respecting the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, with the independence that it grants it,” the statement reads, pointing to the DPCP.
“We need for the government to feel the pressure, the outrage that we’re feeling,” said Mainguy.
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.
Meanwhile, Cesur says he will keep fighting to try to get the case reopened.
“I will not back off,” he said. “I’ll go after them until justice is served for our son.”
-With files from The Canadian Press
