Armed man charged with 3 offences after police standoff in Montreal downtown

A 34-year-old man, who was arrested Thursday morning, following a standoff with police officers near UQAM was charged with three offences.

At a court appearance Friday, he was charged with assault on peace officers, resisting arrest and possession of weapons — to which he pled not guilty.

A public defender appointed to the case said that his client was having a crisis Thursday, but was doing better. The Crown prosecutor objected to his release.

He will undergo evaluation by a criminologist and is expected to be back in court Monday.

On Thursday around 7:45 a.m., SPVM received a 911 call about a man with a knife at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Berri Streets.

When police officers arrived they found the man brandishing knives, two at some point, and as officers attempted to subdue him, he ran from them.

During the intervention, the man allegedly became aggressive towards the officers causing the officers to first use pepper spray, tasers and rubber bullets to subdue him.

But, the man allegedly continued to be aggressive.

“At a certain moment, one officer shot at least once in the direction of that suspect [but] was not able to hit him,” said SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant.

In a video posted by a Facebook user who was at the scene, more than a dozen officers were seen cornering the man on a sidewalk. Officers could be heard shouting “Put your hands up” even as the man tried to evade them.

“The intervention continued and at a certain point with the taser, that man was controlled,” Brabant added.

He man was arrested and taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. He is expected to be taken to a detention centre later.

Brabant also said two SPVM squad cars collided when they attempted to stop the man. Three officers faced minor injuries in the crash and were rushed to the hospital.

Quebec’s police watchdog (BEI) said that it won’t be opening an investigation as the event doesn’t meet its criteria.

“The BEI investigates all cases in which, during a police intervention, a person dies or suffers a serious injury or a firearm injury caused by a police officer,” Jérémie Comtois, spokesperson for BEI, told CityNews in an email.

A security perimeter was established for investigation into the circumstances leading to the standoff.

Traffic was closed on Berri Street from René-Lévesque Boulevard to Ste-Catherine and on Maisonneuve Street between Berri and Ste-Élisabeth Streets.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of the article said the suspect was around 25 based on initial reports. On Friday, Jan. 9, SPVM confirmed that the man was a 34-year-old.