Suspect faces 10 charges

A 24-year-old Salluit man was flown to hospital in Montreal after being wounded in a shootout with police.

The shooting occurred June 7 when Kativik Regional Police responded to a call at 5 a.m. about a dispute involving a man with a firearm.

Police with the Sûreté du Québec in Rouyn-Noranda said the man was struck in the abdomen by a bullet.

The injured man fled and eluded the KRPF, who considered him armed and dangerous, until shortly before noon on Sunday when police found him on the top of a hill near the community, lying inside a sleeping bag with his firearm.

SQ Constable Richard Carlos said police arrested the man without incident. The man was taken to the health centre in Salluit, then medevaced to Puvirnituq, and from there, to a hospital in Montreal for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

The man made his first appearance by telephone from his Montreal hospital bed on June 8.

Peter Usuituayuk of Salluit faces 10 separate charges in connection with the June 7 incident, including possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and uttering threats.

The SQ went to Salluit to investigate the shooting because, according to Quebec law, an outside police force must investigate any injury caused by a discharge of a firearm by police.

Investigators from the SQ also went to Kuujjuaq this past April to evaluate another incident in which a KRPF constable shot and wounded a 23-year-old man.

According to statistics tabled March 28 at the Kativik Regional Government council meeting, gun calls in Nunavik have risen from nine in 2007 to 11 in 2008 and 14 so far to date in 2009.

An earlier set of KRPF statistics said the number of gun calls had risen from 44 in 2006 to 70 in 2008.

Rev. Iola Meetuq made a public plea for proper firearm use at the recent KRG meeting where he spoke on behalf of the Nunavik's regional partnership committee.

Meetuq said in the past Inuit men learned how to handle firearms for hunting and were taught never to point them at other people.

"But today this weapon is being used very differently and is used to take aim at other things," Meetuq said.

Meetuq attributed the rise in gun calls to an increase in drug and alcohol use by Nunavimmiut.

Later this month, a new joint task force, with a mandate to combat drugs and alcohol in Nunavik, starts operations in Kuujjuaq. The unit includes four investigators from the SQ and three from the KRPF.