WARNING: This story contains graphic and audio videos captured during violent police interventions.
In a hugged back alley between rows of apartment buildings in the northeast of Montreal, a group of family members is curled up for vigil and prayer.
“Justice for Abisay’s life,” said a woman, with her hands raised and her eyes closed during a prayer in Spanish, referring to Abisay Cruz, a relative of her who died on March 30 after a Montreal police intervention became violent.
Two floors from a fire staircase just a few steps, the afflicted mother of Cruz, Marcelina Isidro, sat on her balcony overlooking the group prayer, the same balcony where her son was heard shouting “Je Vais Mourir“Or” I’m going to die “, in video images that captured part of their altercation with the police.
“What happened is very difficult,” Isidro told CBC News in Spanish. “I never thought my son would leave us, that my son would die so young.”
Sunday’s vigil in the neighborhood of Montreal de Saint-Michel took place on the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and caused protests worldwide on police brutality and racism.
People in the vigil indicate the fact that, similar to how Cruz could be heard shouting that he was going to die, he could hear Flyd saying “I can’t breathe” while police officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to nail Floyd’s neck to the pavement for more than nine minutes.
“It was the same situation with my brother. Someone who was asking for help, who couldn’t breathe,” said Josué Cruz, Abisay’s younger brother.
“And even then they continued to press their back.”
Cruz was 29 years old. His only son, Enzo, is nine.
Research on Cruz’s death
Cruz was one of the two people in the Montreal area that died after a police intervention in a period of approximately 12 hours that weekend at the end of March. Quebec police guardian dog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendses (BEI), you are investigating.
According to the preliminary information that the BEI published at that time, the Montreal Police responded to a 911 call on March 30 about a person in crisis near the corner of Pie -ix Boulevard and 47th Street.
After the police arrived and an altercation occurred between them and a man on the scene, the officers finally restored him. The Bei said that the man, who was later identified as Cruz, suffered “discomfort” and lost consciousness. They gave him first aid and transported him to the hospital where he was declared dead.
Abisay Cruz died after a police operation in the Saint-Michel neighborhood of Montreal in March. His family says that his death and George Floyd’s in 2020 share common elements.
Since then, they have circulated videos that captured the police intervention, including the images that was released by the family about three weeks after the death of Cruz.
“We believe there are similarities in the way Mr. Cruz died and the way in which Mr. Floyd died,” said Fo Niemi, head of the Research Action Center on Faly Relations (CRRAR).
“This is an opportunity to show that George Floyd can happen here in Montreal.”
The videos of the police altercation with Cruz show two officers who restrict the 29 -year -old father on the back balcony of the apartment where he lived with his mother.
Cruz is face down on his stomach and the officers are kneeling. It is not clear if they are kneeling or their side.
In a moment, however, Cruz’s legs seem to be hitting the balcony and is clearly distressed. Another video of a different angle shared on social networks collects events a little later. In this video, you can see Cruz fighting while an officer is clearly kneeling on his back.
The family has asked for the investigation of a public coroner. The Forensic Office has not yet ruled out.
The Montreal Police rejected the request for comments from CBC News, citing Bei’s ongoing investigation.
Family to continue protesting until they get answers
Cristian Bermúdez was Cruz’s best friend.
He lived two apartment buildings away from him and spent much of his childhood in the alley where people gathered for Sunday’s vigil.
“He was a loving guy. He was there for his friends, loyal,” said Bermúdez. “It’s hard for everyone. It has been very difficult, especially the way it came out.”
Cruz’s younger brother, Josueé, said that the interactions between the police and the black, Arab and Latin people in the neighborhood of Saint-Michel can often get tense and argue that his brother would still be alive if it were white.
“The arrest would have developed differently,” he said.
Joshua added that the grieving process has been difficult because the family has no answers to their questions about what happened that day.
He thinks that public meetings and protests in honor of his brother will continue while that continues to be the case.
“Even his son is asking questions, and he has no answers,” said Joshua.
“He is asking things as if the police are really there to help.”
As the Americans mark five years since the black man disarmed George Floyd was killed by the white police officer Derek Chauvin, the protesters say that police reforms have not occurred, noting that the Trump administration receded the federal reform efforts in the days prior to the anniversary.
