No charges for police in 2016 shooting death

Sûreté du Québec officers will not face charges in relation to the 2016 death of a man shot and killed by police in Montebello, the director of criminal and penal prosecutions announced Thursday.

After reviewing a report by the provincial police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales found that the police officers’ use of force was justified, given the threat posed by 29-year-old Danny LafranceGodmer. According to the DPCP, four SQ officers responded to a 911 call on Oct. 6, 2016 from a woman reporting that she was concerned about her ex-partner, whom she had broken up with.

Armed with a knife, LafranceGodmer threatened to hurt himself as well as police if they showed up at the Montebello home he was in, the DPCP said in a news release. Three SQ officers found LafranceGodmer in the attic of the house, the DPCP said, when he charged the officers with a knife and was subsequently shot. Two of the police officers believed they fired at Lafrance-Godmer. They tried to resuscitate him after he collapsed, the release said, but he was taken to hospital and his death was declared.

The confined space between LafranceGodmer and the officers, as well as his unpredictability and refusal to heed instructions to let go of the knife, gave officers reason to fear for their lives, the DPCP said. Given the imminent danger, deploying a firearm to neutralize this

The confined space between Lafrance-Godmer and the officers ... gave officers reason to fear for their lives.

threat did not constitute excessive force, they said, concluding that a crime had not been committed.

Lafrance- Godmer had a lengthy criminal record. Quebec’s criminal database had 41 entries attached to his name, including a 2009 conviction for assault with a weapon and criminal harassment, and 2015 sexual assault charges against a minor under 16, distribution of sexually explicit material to a minor and disorderly conduct.