Trauma to heal

Archival Photo, QMI Agency
On 10 August, at Saint-Georges de Beauce, a SQ police officer was shot at the gun and mortally wounded a suspect who allegedly attacked him with a knife. The investigation of the EIB is still in progress, but the patrol has returned to work.

Jean-François Racine

Sunday, 4 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 4 march, 2018 00:00

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More than six months after he shot and killed a person in Saint-Georges de Beauce, the police officer of the Sûreté du Québec, who had used his service weapon has returned to work since this response disturbing in the career of a patrol boat.

On 10 August, the victim, William Bolduc, 25, has been reached fatally by an SQ police officer near route 173 and 1st Avenue. The suspect allegedly attacked the policeman with a knife. Injured, the officer then used his service weapon.

However, the investigation is still ongoing, and the report of the Bureau of independent investigations (EIB) should not be forwarded to the Director of criminal and penal prosecutions before a few months yet. This is because the investigation is not over as The Newspaper has not been able to talk with him and know his name.

“Yes, it is possible to go back as a police officer after such an event. Conversely, there are difficult situations where police will have difficulties. I have in mind one young man burned to death under the eye of an agent who has been unable to get out alive from the car. He was heard to scream. Four or five years later, he was not to return to work “, explains the expert in police affairs Jean-François Brochu.

Retired from the SQ, Stéphane Jean has managed to get back on the job in 1995, after having been reached by a shot fired by a suspect who was ultimately committed suicide, Tingwick, near Victoriaville.

“I have permanent scars, but I was able to hold a management position. My victory was to be alive. I had accepted that my life would be different. I often passed the scene in my head, but not to look for gaps or me feel guilty. It can be very useful to meet people who have experienced things traumatic. “

The former policeman says that it takes a strong character to put on his uniform again. “I felt less vulnerable, since I was no longer in an intervention context. I was no longer exposed to risk as I had experienced. “

Two years after

Back in his autopatrouille two years after a brush with death, the officer Guillaume Bernier also believes that it is possible to get through this ordeal.

In August 2015, Bernier was a transport of an inmate when the suspect grabbed the wheel and caused a head-on collision with a semi-trailer truck on route 117. “It rolls in your head. You can return all the scenarios in your head and it gives nothing at all. You’re looking for the clues that could make you act differently. It is necessary to let go, ” he said, after months of hospitalization and rehabilitation.

Difficult period

In the wake of a shooting such as that of St-Georges, some police officers live a difficult period when they find themselves in the spotlight, believes Jean-Francois Brochu. “In independent surveys, you are put in doubt. The system looks at the decision that you have taken in a fraction of a second. It is hard for months, in the face of uncertainty. “

For his part, the former sergeant Alain Gelly, who still teaches, remembers that he used his weapon to fire during its first years.

“When you take this choice, you will need to be able to live with the decision. This is not the time where you make the decision that is important, it is how you are going to live after that, all of your life. “

Doubts can set in

Traumatic events such as a shooting or an incident of death may influence the future behaviour of any police officer in the line of duty.

“At the time of the event, I thought I would die. Yes, I’m scared now when I ride in the car. I fear the collisions, even if I do not carry anyone in the back. I’m a lot more wary, ” says the police officer Guillaume Bernier (reading text).

The latter, however, was motivated by the desire to resume exactly the same functions, even if the jobs less dangerous to exist in the SQ. “I said to myself that this would not be him who would decide how I was going to finish my career. “

However, Mr. Bernier said that a series of incidents that are difficult may undermine the trust of a patrol boat. “We can have a good ability to put his shirt in the locker after the book, but sometimes the bin is full. “

“I turned around “

At the time, became a grandfather recently, the former police officer Jean-François Brochu was intervened with his team, in 2012, in the case of Nicolas Lacroix, convicted of the manslaughter of the little Nathan Lecours, 2 years, in Lévis. Lacroix was pointed with a gun at the mother of the toddler because she had launched an appeal to help to protect a stranger who was harassing him. The shot accidentally killed the child.

“When I saw the child, I turned to edge. This is where I started to think to retire. It was a hundred that I saw, but now, I had a grandson the same age. “

According to the former sergeant Alain Gelly, the judgment sometimes rapid population puts a lot of pressure on the young police officers of today. “People are often afraid to instinctively make a decision that is fatal because of the quick judgment of the company. The police can be put in danger by hesitating a few more seconds. “

Post-traumatic assistance of the Sûreté du Québec

Examples of events

• Death or serious injury of a colleague
• Death or serious injury suffered by a child
• Suicide of a colleague
• Incident unusual and especially macabre
• Event involving several injured or dead
• The victim is an acquaintance close to an employee
• Event with emotional impact serious (firearms, hostage-taking, kidnapping)
• Transaction involving media coverage