Police officer involved in fatal altercation with le-Bizard man delivers contradictory testimony

Two of the four Montreal police officersinvolved in restraining 28-year-old Koray Celikjust moments before he died testified during a public inquiry on Tuesday, with one of them saying she feared for her life during the altercation and the other delivering testimony that contradicted a previous version of events he had given.

KarineBujold and her partner were the first toarriveat Celik's house around 2 a.m.on the night of March 6, 2017, after his parents called 911 saying their son was intoxicated, aggressive and wanted to get behind the wheel.

Bujoldwas the first officer to testify on Tuesday.

"I really thought Iwas going to die in that house, in that moment," an emotionalBujoldsaid at the second day of the coroner's public inquiry into the young man's death.

TheCeliks have maintained that officers used excessive force on their son, saying they watched as he was kicked, choked and beaten with batons until he stopped breathing.

On Monday, they refused to participate in the inquiry saying they hadlost faith in a process that seemed to protect police.

Bujoldtestified at lengthon Tuesday and sobbedopenlywhile describing her version of events. At one point, the inquiry recessed for 10 minutes to allow her to regain her composure.

Bujoldsaid sheand her partnerAlexandre Blairwho testified Mondayarrived at the scene and immediately went to speak with Celik's parents. She saidBlairspoke with the man's father, Cesur,who was outside near the garage, while she went up to his mother, June, who was standing on the front stoop.

On Monday, Blair testified that Cesur told him his son was high and needed to calm down. He pleaded for officers not to enter the home.

Bujoldtold the inquiry Tuesday that this information was notrelayed to her, so shefollowed Celik's mother inside and asked where her son was.Bujold said June did not answer her question, but instead turned around and made her way down a dimly lithallway.

Bujoldfollowed hera move deputy chief coroner Luc Malouinquestioned. Malouin,who'spresiding over the inquiry,saidnot asking for more information about Celikfirst was very dangerous and couldhave gotten her killed.

Bujoldsaid she turned on her flashlight and saw Celik standing in a doorway. She said immediately, he aggressively told her to turn off her flashlight, which she was shining at his chest to check if he was armed. She said she told him no.Bujold said Celik repeated his demand, to which she again replied no.

That's when Bujold said Celik raised his fists in the air, adopted a boxer's stanceand charged at her.

She said she quickly moved backward as Celik continuedto advancetoward her. She said he was much larger than she was and she feared he would disarm her of any tools she took out to subdue him. That's the moment she said she believed she would die.

No de-escalation training at time of incident

Bujold said she was eventually able to take out her baton and hit Celik in the left thigh with it, but it was not effective. At this moment, with Celik'sfists still raised in the air, Bujold said her colleagues,includingJrme Babin,entered the house and tackled him to the ground.

Babin made the first move, according to the testimony he gave on Tuesday.

He saidhe grabbed Celik by the shoulders, shoved him into a wall and brought him to the ground.He said he did this because the man showed signs that he would charge atBujoldonce more and injure her.

He said he attempted to steady Celik's head while his colleagues jumped in to try and restrain his arms and legs.Both officers describedCelik resisting with great force,andBabinsaid at one point, the young man bit him. However, he acknowledgedthat the bitedidn't make it through his winter gloves.

Babin corroborated Bujold's testimony, saying two pairs of handcuffs were required to subdue Celik. Both officers said they did not hit the man while he was on the ground and do not recall seeing their partners hit him.

BothBujoldandBabinsaid it came as a shock when they turned Celik on his side and saw that his face was blue and he had no pulse. Theysaid officers took off the cuffs and Babin started performing CPR,but the manwas unresponsive and was taken away in an ambulance.

Alexandre Popovic the lawyer representing an anti-police-brutality organization, theCoalition contre la rpression et les abus policiers asked whether Bujoldthought she and her colleagues might have gone too far when she noticed Celikhad no pulse. She said no.

Asked whether she had received any de-escalation training at the time of the event, Bujoldsaid she hadn't.

'You'll lose all credibility by going down that road'

During questioning, several inconsistencies were pointed out between Babin's testimony and his initial police reports specifically about whether Celik dealt blows to officers or if they suffered serious injuries at Celik's hands.

During Babin's testimony, he said they had not, while in the initial report, he wrote they had.

While attempting to reconcile those differences, Coroner Malouin interjected, saying, "you'll lose all credibility by going down that road."Malouin said the report contradictedBabin's testimony on Tuesday.

Celik's parents have also described the events very differently than police. In 2021, aQuebec civil court judge slammed Quebec's police watchdog the BEI for favouring officers' versions of events following in the case. The Celik family was awarded $30,000 in damages.

In 2020, the family filed a$558,000 lawsuitagainst the City of Montreal and Urgences-Sant.

The inquiry is scheduled to continue through to early December.