Zara Adel said she was in disbelief when she found out police on Montreal’s South Shore had fatally shot 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi.
Just like the young victim, the 11-year-old girl is Afghan, so it hit close to home.
“I came here to pay respects to the family,” she said Sunday, her aunt and young brother by her side, as she attended a protest in Longueuil, Que., held in the boy’s honour.
Rezayi was shot dead by police in the suburb last Sunday.
The police service says it happened as officers were responding to a 911 call about a group of youth in a residential area that the force says was armed.
Adel said she thinks the officer that pulled the trigger should be put in jail.
“What if it happened to your brother, your family?” the girl said. “It’s not fair.”
Quebec's independent police watchdog — the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes — reported finding a baseball bat after the fatal shooting. The only firearm seized belonged to the officer who shot the teenager, it reported.
A backpack and some ski masks were also recovered afterwards, according to the oversight body.
The local police force has since confirmed the officer involved has been placed on an indefinite sick leave.
Protesters gathered for a second time on Sunday, after a vigil was held for the boy in the same area the day before.
They marched to the police station, which was surrounded by a line of officers in riot gear by the time they arrived.
Many protesters said police officers need to be equipped with body cameras.
“Body cams will assure that what the police say is true and factual,” said rally organizer Francisco Fabian Castro.
Castro doesn't know Rezayi's family personally and says he hasn't been in touch because he wants to give them privacy while they mourn his sudden passing. He said he was compelled to organize the protest simply to demand justice for the boy.
He says there’s a problem of systemic racism within the local police force, and that authorities like Quebec’s police watchdog haven’t done enough to put an end to it.
“I’ve seen racism with my own eyes, at night especially,” he said, adding that his Black friends are often stopped by officers claiming they resemble a suspect they’re looking for, or who say their vehicle matches one that’s been stolen.
“We’re tired of that systemic racism, and that we’re treated like second-class citizens,” said Castro, who said he’s an immigrant.
Marie-Claude Tremblay also joined in on the protest, and said it's not right that a gun was pulled when it seems like there was no evidence the boys posed a risk to police.
"The police said they are defending us, but that's not true," she said.
The police service says no one was arrested during the protest.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Miriam Lafontaine
