(Members of Lac Simon, Que say Sandy Michel was killed by local police Wednesday night in the community. Photo from facebook)
Tom Fennario
APTN National News
LAC SIMON, QUE– A man was killed by police in the Algonquin community of Lac Simon Wednesday evening.
Lac Simon police responded to a call of a man brandishing a knife at approximately 7:30 p.m. local time.
A number of sources in the community say the man was Sandy Michel of Lac Simon.
Michel, who was in 20’s, was first hit by a police car. Shots from police were fired later.
It is not clear what killed Michel.
Lac Simon is located about 495 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Quebec’s provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), has since taken over the investigation.
According to the SQ, the man was taken by ambulance to hospital in Val d’Or where he died.
This is the second deadly shooting the small Algonquin community has faced since February.
After Wednesday’s shooting, emotions were running high.
According to a post on Facebook, members of the community surrounded SQ officers as they arrived.
“Following the intervention, a group of people allegedly tried to attack the police to Lac-Simon and so the Sûreté du Québec were requested as reinforcements,” said the SQ, Benoit Coutu. “Ten SQ officers were dispatched to the scene and a perimeter was established.”
The SQ has been mandated by the Ministry of Public Security to take over policing duties in the community until further notice.
The Ministry of Public Security also said that the SQ will conduct an independent investigation to determine exactly what happened between police and Lac Simon residents Wednesday night.
In February, Lac Simon police Officer Thierry LeRoux, 26, was shot and killed by community member Anthony Raymond Papatie. Papatie took his own life after confessing to the shooting on Facebook.
More to come …
Common sense says you don’t walk down a public street with a knife and you won’t have confrontations with police.