Alacie Iqaluk, a six-year-old girl from Inukjuak, seen in a picture from her father’s Facebook, died in Montreal, a family member confirmed. She suffered a head injury during a Dec. 20 exchange of gunfire when police were called to her home and had a confrontation with an armed man. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Naluktuk/Facebook)
6-year-old girl dies after police-involved shooting in Inukjuak
Alacie Iqaluk was shot during ‘exchange of gunfire’ at house, says cousin of child’s father
A six-year-old girl has been identified as the person who died after a police-involved shooting in Inukjuak on Dec. 20.
“Alacie was in bed with her mother when the accident happened,” said Lucy Nowra, describing events of the early morning incident.
Nowra is a cousin of Andrew Naluktuk, who is Alacie Iqaluk’s father. Nowra identified Naluktuk as the other person who was injured in what Kativik Regional Government called an “exchange of gunfire” in its Dec. 23 news release.
In another statement issued by KRG on Wednesday, chairperson Maggie Emudluk said, “I am deeply saddened to hear [of] the passing of the little girl. She is an innocent victim of such a sad tragedy.”
In the days after the shooting, the man and his young daughter were initially described as being in critical but stable condition in a Montreal hospital following the incident in the village of about 1,800 people on Nunavik’s Hudson Bay coast.
On Dec. 20, Nunavik Police Service officers responded to a 911 call at 3:30 a.m. reporting that a person at a home posed a danger to others, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes said in a news release published on its website Dec. 21.
When police arrived, a man armed with a rifle confronted them, KRG said. The man, described as a “gunman,” and a child who was inside the home were injured.
The two were treated at the scene, then medevaced to a hospital in Montreal.
On Dec. 30, the bureau — Quebec’s police watchdog, which is investigating the police response to the 911 call — announced one person had died in the incident, but didn’t specify who the person was or when the victim died.
“The BEI never identifies the identity of the victims of the interventions for confidentiality reasons,” spokesperson Jérémie Comtois said in an email Wednesday.
“We can confirm that the person who died is the person who was gravely injured following the intervention, who was found in the house.”
Comtois directed further inquiries to the Quebec coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.
Nowra confirmed the death of six-year-old Alacie Iqaluk.
Nowra said Alacie suffered a head wound. She said police fired five shots — one hitting Iqaluk and another wounding Naluktuk.
“This has been an incredibly painful time for us, and out of respect for her and our privacy I won’t be sharing further graphic details,” she wrote in an email.
Sixteen people have died in Nunavik in interactions with police since 2016. Four of these incidents have occurred in the past 14 months, involving four deaths.
Joshua Papigatuk died in November 2024 and his twin brother Garnet was badly injured after they were shot by police.
In May 2025, Mark R. Annanack died in Kangiqsualujjuaq after a confrontation with police. And in July 2025, James Kavik in Inukjuak died after an incident involving police.
The Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force leading the investigation into the Dec. 20 Inukjuak incident, has not indicated whether Naluktuk or anyone else has or will be charged following the incident.
There is a systemic problem with Nunavik policing. Repeated Inuit deaths and now the killing of an innocent child should outrage everyone. This is not “normal” and it cannot be excused! Stop defending the system and start asking hard questions.
Anyone still dismissing concerns is part of the problem!
Like you i am outraged at the death of the young girl, however, why not act like a grown-up so these types of situations do not occur? Take some responsibility for your actions.
I’ve asked questions on FB about the intervention. Many many individuals ARE LAUGHING under an article about that poor little girl that what killed. It is disgusting.
The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) was created in Quebec to ensure independent, impartial, and transparent investigations into serious incidents involving police officers, with the aim of increasing public confidence in the justice system.
1. Impartial — yes
2. Independant — yes
3. Transparant — no
When the BEI fails at their own mandate. Public confidence is eroded. Release the body cam videos of the incidents. Redacted or Censured to protect public privacy of course. The body cam videos don’t lie.
It’s terrible that a 6 year old has died.
It’s time that an inquest is held publicly to debrief this incident publicly. Nunavik residents deserve to understand the dynamics that resulted in the death of an innocent child.
The public appears to have lost trust in policing. An inquest may do more to help all stakeholders learn and understand the sorts of situations that police encounter and the decisions they are forced to confront.
16 deaths in a population of 12,000 justifies this approach. It’s a statistical outlier that deserves attention from all nunavik organizations and beyond.
Too many unlicensed fire arms owners in the north there i said it. Death by firearms rates are similar to those in places like Chicago and Saint Louis, where people think having a gun is a right not a privilege. Need reform. People with mental health issues should not have access to guns
Civilians are innocent until proven guilty. Where as, the fuzz is guilty until proven innocent. It takes a special kind of person to have responsibility of hand gun license, obviously NPS should not have that responsibility. We will not know the full details of this incident until 2027, even at that?
But our leaders will write a strongly worded letter and allow the chaos to unfold.🤑
There are several reasons for life being shortened by police shootings in Nunavik. Yes the police are in need of training. But drunks with guns are not new , but its gone to a new level. The best thing to focus on apart from police training is asking more serious questions about the number of individuals that just can’t handle drinking and mental illness. Several issues need addressing as indicated. This will continue mostly because too many peopke in Nunavik are not handling booze well.
The RCMP have more resources and more, probably better training. Not saying Nunavik police are not qualified, but the RCMP have better intervention training. Why havent they taken over Nunavik like all other northern communities?
The RCMP have been involved in several shootings of Indigenous civilians in the last few years and is no better than the NPS. In any event, Quebec has its own provincial police and if anyone should replace the NPS it would be the SQ.
“Maybe you should do your research before posting something you don’t know about.
Training for a new Nunavik Police Service (NPS) officer involves a mandatory 26-week (six-month) basic training program at the RCMP Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan.
This means these officers receive the same training as any other RCMP officer in Canada. There is a much larger problem in the North, and it is not limited to the NPS or other police forces.”
In you opinion, what do you think is the problem up north?
1-Housing shortages and overcrowded homes.
2-A lack of local services for people seeking help with alcohol or drug addiction.
3-The few people who leave town for treatment usually relapse because there is no follow-up care or support available when they return.
4-Mental health is a major issue in Nunavik, yet there is little support within the communities. Residents usually have to be sent south for care.
These are just a few of the major problems I can think of.
“The government needs to provide more funding, but there is also a lot of money coming from the mines. Why isn’t this money being used to build more houses or rehab centers? The people in charge of distributing those funds should be looked into.”
I hate to inform you, but NPS had been sending candidates to the rcmp depot for training for several years now.
This isn’t a training or resource issue. Policing in Nunavik has evolved light-years ahead from where it was 20 years ago.
What has not changed is the relative frequency of alcohol and drug abuse, the over crowding, and the prevalence of mental health issues related to constant exposure to trauma.
With the number of police shootings, it’s time to unpack this issue for everyone to understand. Unpack each of the BEI investigations and identify the common factors. Deal with the issues that lead to these incidents, otherwise, they’ll continue to occur.
While the police may be justified in their responses, there is no excuse to pretend that this number of shootings is acceptable. In any other area of Canada, it would have been treated as an emergency long before now.
Statistically, this is a horrendous situation compared to the rest of Canada and 16 civilians death in 10 years is like 1.6 per year and if the population would be 10,000 that would amount to 16/100 000 per year and only the cases where the police are involved. In Canada it’s less than 1/100,000 or around that. Statistically it’s worst than the most violent states in the US. So, if you think there’s a problem, you’re absolutely right. Canada has other Arctic jurisdictions where the death by police statistics aren’t that bad and there’s obviously a police problem in Nunavik and officers resort way too often to using their firearms.
Adding insult to injury, the BEI is far from being impartial and often investigators are retired or former police officers, which is not conducive to impartiality or the appearance of impartiality. Further, the BEI is any but transparent and its relationship with the public is fairly obtuse. Investigations take years without real information except for meaningless statements and, eventually, no charges are ever laid against police officers which might be legally grounded but less than transparent when little if any explanation is provided. This also is a useless agency and these investigations should go to the coroner’s office that at least has a better reputation than the BEI. So, overall, the whole issue need to be revised and Nunavimmiut should have a say in the way safety is ensured in their communities.
When your only tool is a hammer everything is seen as a nail.