Nunavik woman shot in police stand-off

Investigators with Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes are en route to Puvirnituq Oct. 19 to look into an early morning standoff between an armed women and local police officers which ended in a shooting. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated Oct. 20)

A young Nunavik woman is in stable condition, but out of danger, after she was shot by police during a violent early morning confrontation in Puvirnituq Oct. 19.

Just after 3 a.m. that morning, Kativik Regional Police Force officers in the Hudson coast community of about 1,700 received a call about gunshots near a home, said Quebec’s office of independent investigations, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes or BEI, in a news release.

When the two officers arrived, they found a woman armed with a rifle at the home who claimed she had just killed someone. The woman then asked officers to shoot her.

The two officers withdrew from the scene until they were joined by a third officer, who took up position near the home.

At that point, the BEI said, the woman threatened that officer with her weapon. The officer then fired, hitting the woman in the abdomen.

The BEI said Oct. 20 that the woman was “out of danger.”

Police did not discover anyone else injured in or around the home, the BEI said. The woman has not been charged.

As in any case when a civilian is seriously injured during a police intervention, BEI investigators will analyse the police response to the incident. Investigators arrived in the community Oct. 20.

The Sûreté du Québec provincial police force will also send a forensic identification technician to assist in the investigation, the BEI said.

The BEI is asking anyone in Puvirnituq who witnessed the incident to contact them through their website, by clicking the section Témoin d’un événement.