MONTREAL — More than 200 demonstrators gathered at Ovila-Legare Park in the east end here April 6 to protest the police killing of 29-year-old Abisay Cruz, the father of a 9-year-old son. Carrying signs like “Justice, stop abuse by the police,” they marched along Pie-IX Boulevard to Police Station 30, where the cops were out in force.
According to the CBC, someone placed a 911 call March 30 reporting a person was in distress at the residence near the corner of Pie-IX and 47th Street where Cruz lived. Bystanders caught some of what happened next on videos, which have been widely viewed on social media.
One video, filmed from a neighboring balcony, shows officers hitting Cruz while he was sitting down. Two officers were holding Cruz against the ground on his balcony, one of them kneeling against his back telling him to calm down. Cruz is lying on his front with his hands behind his back and sounds distressed. He lost consciousness and was declared dead when he arrived at the hospital.
Chanting “What do we want? Justice. For whom? Abisay!” dozens of people attended a vigil April 1 in front of Cruz’s residence. “They let him die on his balcony. We need to know what really happened. I heard him screaming at the top of his lungs,” Daniela Pimental, who lives in a neighboring building, told the Journal de Montreal. “They let him die like a dog,” said Dan Aguilar, another neighbor.
Over the March 29-30 weekend Quebec police killed two other people — one in Montreal and another in Quebec City. Another vigil was held for all three April 6. The Office of Independent Investigations (BEI) has opened probes into the three killings.
The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms issued a statement April 5 “denouncing once again the fact that the investigations of the police by the police continue in Quebec under the auspices of the BEI. The BEI is not a transparent, impartial and independent investigative body of the police.”
Alexandre Popovic from the Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse told CBC that since 2016, out of “446 investigations, including 41 ongoing, only two have resulted in legal proceedings” against the police.
When this Militant reporter joined Philippe Tessier, one of the two Communist League candidates in the April 28 federal elections, on 47th Street April 15, we found appreciation for the solidarity we brought to their fight against police brutality. Leaflets for the April 6 vigil for Cruz were still up on several apartment doors. A banner reading “Justice for Abisay,” along with flowers, balloons and ribbons, were placed in front of the building where he was killed.
“The police who killed Abisay Cruz should be identified, arrested, and charged,” Tessier told people he met. “The Communist League demands the police be held responsible for their actions.”