The last time a Montreal police constable was killed in the line of duty, before Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane was fatally shot on Monday, took place more than two decades ago.
Twenty-nine-year-old Const. Benoît L’Écuyer, a seven-year veteran of the force, was shot on Feb. 28, 2002, as police exchanged gunfire with a criminal named Stéphane Boucher, who was 24 at the time.
According to the version of events posted on the Montreal police website, L’Écuyer and his partner were participating in a radar operation on the south side of Crémazie Blvd., near Pie-IX Blvd., when their pursuit of Boucher began.
They spotted the vehicle Boucher was in, along with two other people, as it sped eastward on the Highway 40 service road. They gave chase and the vehicle was forced to stop near Ray-Lawson Blvd.
Boucher, the driver, jumped out and fled on foot on to the Metropolitan Expressway. L’Écuyer followed him and was shot by Boucher.
During his trial, Boucher told the jury that the police fired two shots toward him first and that one bullet grazed his hand.
He claimed that when he noticed L’Écuyer, the constable was just eight metres behind him and was about to raise his firearm.
He said he fired two or three bullets before L’Écuyer bent forward. Boucher then fired again.
Forensic evidence showed L’Écuyer was shot four or five times. The fatal bullet pierced his lung and heart.
“I thought he wanted to kill me,” Boucher testified in 2003. “I didn’t have time to think. I didn’t want to die.”
Boucher then hijacked a car and fled. Following an intense five-day manhunt, Montreal police homicide detectives found him asleep at the home of a relative of one of his criminal associates.
The jury didn’t believe his claim that he was acting in self defence and found Boucher guilty of first-degree murder.
Boucher, now 49, is eligible for full parole next year. He automaticazlly received a life sentence on Nov. 1, 2003, and is not eligible for full parole until he serves 25 years behind bars.
Montreal police officer Ian Lafrenière lays at wreath at a memorial for Const. Benoît L’Écuyer in 2002. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette
The sentence dates back to the date he was arrested for L’Écuyer’s murder, early in March 2002.
Boucher has not applied for any form of release since 2019, when his request for access for a compassionate escorted leave, to attend a funeral, was rejected by the Parole Board of Canada despite a recommendation from Correctional Service Canada that it be approved.
The decision details how Boucher began committing crimes when he was very young. He told his case management team, the people who prepare an offender for a release, that he began stealing change and small items from cars as early as age 10, and then car radios, which he resold to a cousin.
He admitted he was involved in vehicle thefts as early as age 11, and sold contraband cigarettes and drugs at his primary school.
When it rejected Boucher’s request for the leave seven years ago, the board wrote: “Your institutional behaviour remains problematic. You demonstrate a lack of respect for institutional rules, you have been the subject of several infraction reports in the past year, you have demonstrated resistance to authority, and you remain a subject of interest for preventive security, particularly in connection with institutional trafficking. You therefore maintain delinquent values and practices within the walls (of a penitentiary).”