‘We support each other’: Quebec police forces hold procession for fallen Montreal officer

Quebec police forces from outside Montreal formed a procession Thursday to pay their respects to the SPVM officer who lost his life in a shootout earlier this week.

Police services from the South Shore and North Shore of Montreal descended on SPVM Station 26, where Mohamed Lamine Benredouane worked.

The 34-year-old Benredouane died Monday in a firefight in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood that also saw civilian Michel Mizrahi, 68, lose his life, as well as the assailant from Alberta.

Officers taking part in the solemn procession drove to the station with their lights flashing and sirens on. They then exited their vehicles to deliver flowers.

“We police officers are like one big family; we support each other,” said Vicky Coté, the media officer for the Roussillon Police Department. “When something like this happens, we all feel personally affected. That’s why it was important for us to come and support our fellow police officers in Montreal.”

“We never know happens every day we go to work, but we’re trying to do our best and we don’t know what can happen but that’s the way it is,” added Sylvain Lessard, a patrol officer with L’Assomption/St-Sulpice Municipal Police. “Life is going so fast and sometimes… there’s no words regarding the job that we choose to do. And we’re all devastated but we have to stand up and keep going.”

Also Thursday, Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher, the Station 26 commander, several other SPVM directors and the head of the Montreal Police Brotherhood attended the scene of the shooting for a private event to lay flowers and to pay their respects.

A small memorial was set up at the spot where Benredouane and Mizrahi were both killed.

“It’s a pretty safe neighbourhood here. This was an isolated incident,” said Gino Altieri, a business owner at the building where the shootout occurred. “I mean, it’s nothing to do with the neighbourhood here. The guy came here for a reason.”

READ: Ceremonies held for officer, civilian killed in Montreal shooting

A funeral for Benredouane was held Wednesday at the Islamic Centre of Quebec mosque in Saint-Laurent. The SPVM says a civic ceremony is being organized, with the force adding it won’t happen before the week of July 6.

The funeral for Mizrahi also took place Wednesday.

“He was a very nice man. He helped a lady with her daughter go inside

“She would have stayed there, she would have got killed in a crossfire like he did,” Altieri said of Mizrahi.