Man injured in Vaudreuil-Dorion shootout with SQ to plead guilty

A 28-year-old man who was injured in a shootout with police officers in the parking lot of the Sûreté du Québec’s detachment in Vaudreuil-Dorion will plead guilty to some of the eight charges filed against him two summers ago, a judge was told on Tuesday.

Christopher Perez appeared before Quebec Court Judge Magali Lepage at the Valleyfield courthouse during which prosecutor Hélène Langis announced that he is expected to plead guilty to at least some of the charges filed against him in 2016.

Early in the afternoon of July 26, 2016, SQ officers tried to pull over a silver BMW as it sped along Highway 20. The driver refused to stop and continued along Harwood Blvd. in Vaudreuil-Dorion before stopping in the SQ’s parking lot. A spokesperson with Quebec’s independent investigation bureau (BEI) told reporters at the time that as officers approached the BMW, which turned out to have been stolen in Ontario, they noticed the driver had a firearm. Shots were exchanged and Perez was seriously wounded. No police officers were struck. Witnesses described hearing dozens of shots fired. A passenger in the BMW was arrested but later released.

A week after the shooting, Perez was charged with the attempted murders of two police officers as well as discharging a firearm with reckless disregard to the lives of both men. He was also charged with the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while trying to evade the police, possession of a loaded and prohibited firearm (a 9-mm pistol), possession of a weapon obtained through a criminal offence and possession of a stolen vehicle.

The BEI investigated and, according to its website, submitted its findings to the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales on June 7 last year.