Man dead, Nunavik cop injured during weekend gunfight in Akulivik

Police in Akulivik continue to investigate the Aug. 17 shooting incident, which left a local man dead and a policeman injured. (SUBMITTED PHOTO

(updated Aug. 20, 8:35 a.m.)

Following a gunfight in the Nunavik community of Akulivik, a member of the Kativik Regional Police Force is wounded and an Akulivik man, 54, from the community of 600, lies dead.

No information was available on the age of the injured KRPF officer.

The incident occurred Aug. 17, said the Surêté du Québec, Quebec’s provincial police force.

The SQ said a man opened fire on KRPF officers when they responded to a call at a local residence.

The KRPF returned fire, with a man killed during this exchange, the SQ said.

Some commenters to Nunatsiaqonline.ca have said that the man who died was trying to intervene when he was shot.

Another man inside the residence was injured, SQ spokesperson Sgt. Marc Tessier said Aug. 20 — not a woman as the SQ earlier said.

Tessier said this man remains in critical condition in a Montreal hospital, while the injured officer, a man, suffered minor injuries.

Investigators from the SQ arrived in Akulivik on Aug. 19, Tessier confirmed.

Their expected departure had been delayed by poor weather in the community, Tessier said.

They are still investigating the incident and will make recommendations for charges, if any, to the Crown — but it could take weeks for the SQ investigators to produce a report on what exactly happened.

“We must proceed according to what happened and not according to what people say,” Tessier said.

Before the SQ’s “official version” of what took place is finished, “it’s only speculation” about the events of Aug. 17 in Akulivik, Tessier said.

Not all of the details of the incident under investigation can be revealed until that report is made public, he said.

Any shooting by a police officer in Quebec, such as as the KRPF, must be investigated by another police force in Quebec, such as the SQ.

“As the KRPF were involved in the incident, the Quebec Public Security Ministry has requested the file be transferred to the SQ, therefore, the KRPF will not issue comments on the matter,” an Aug. 19 statement from the Kativik Regional Government said.

This latest shooting follows the fatal shooting this past March of Cst. Steve Dery, 27, who was killed responding to a call in Kuujjuaq, while his partner was injured while responding to the same call.

By June of this year, the KRPF had lost nearly half of its entire force of 66 — more than 30 — with 12 officers handing in their resignations after Déry’s death in March.

For most of these officers who resigned, the death of their co-worker Déry was the “icing on the cake,” KRPF police chief Aileen MacKinnon told Nunatsiaq News after a May 29 presentation she made to the Kativik Regional Government council in Kangiqsujuaq.

MacKinnon said the generally tough working conditions as well as distance from family were among the other reasons that prompted people to leave the KRPF.

These grim working conditions were illustrated by a video of a police intervention at an Akulivik residence taken during the spring, which has now been removed from the video-sharing site.

At the June KRG meeting, the KRPF also tabled crime statistics for Akulivik, which racked up 198 criminal incidents during the first half of 2013, with 12 occurrences of assault against a police officer.