No charges against police involved in fatal 2025 Kangiqsualujjuaq shooting

Quebec’s Director of Criminal and Pénal Prosecutions will not lay charges against a Nunavik Police Service officer who fatally shot a man in Kangiqsualujjuaq in May 2025, finding that the officer was justified in his use of lethal force under the Criminal Code.

The decision follows a review of the investigation conducted by the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, according to a release issued by Quebec’s prosecutor’s office Wednesday.

The Nunavik Police Service had been searching for the Mark Annanack since April 5, 2025, after he escaped from custody at the Kangiqsualujjuaq police station.

On May 6, at around 10:25 p.m., officers found him hiding in a tent in a wooded area behind a house. When they approached him, he repeatedly claimed to have a knife and a firearm and threatened to use them, the release said.

Officers tried to persuade him to cooperate. When he attempted to leave the tent, police sprayed him in the face with pepper spray.

At around 10:39 p.m., the man exited the tent again and walked toward an officer. After being told the man had a knife, the officer ordered him to stop and fired two rounds from a Taser, according to the report.

The man remained standing and continued walking toward the officer, who then fired two gun shots.

Annanack, was taken to a health centre, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 p.m.

A forensic pathologist determined that the death was caused by multiple gunshot wounds, the release said.

The prosecutor’s office found the officer’s use of force was justified under the Criminal Code, which allows police to use lethal force when necessary to protect themselves or others from death or serious bodily harm.

This is the second of four police-involved deaths from the past year and a half to receive a decision on charges.

In August, the prosecutor announced it wouldn’t lay charges against police officers in the death of James Kavik in Inukjuak in July 2025.

Joshua Papigatuk died in November 2024 and his twin brother Garnet was badly injured after they were shot by police in Salluit.

Then, in December 2025, a six-year-old girl identified by a family member as Alacie Iqaluk died and her father, Andrew Naluktuk, was injured in a police-involved shooting in Inukjuak.