MONTREAL - The man fatally shot by Montreal police at Bonaventure metro Friday has been identified.
He is a 34-year-old homeless man named Farshad Mohammadi, identified with the help of fingerprints.
Officers from the Surete du Quebec police force say Mohammadi attacked Montreal police officers, stabbing one in the upper body and head, at about 2 p.m. Friday. A second officer Mohammadi. He died soon after.
Police say they spent all Friday night and Saturday night gathering witness statements, but so far can not explain exactly how the event occurred.
"Investigators are still meeting with witnesses," said Surete du Quebec spokesperson Martine Asselin. "They're going to take all the pieces of the puzzles and put together what really happened."
Mohammadi frequented the Old Brewery Mission shelter for men until 2009, when he was temporarily suspended due an altercation.
"It involved an act of aggression on his part towards our staff," said Matthew Pearce, director of the Old Brewery Mission.
"I suspect it was not of a very serious order, otherwise that detail would be in the report, so I suspect it might have been some pushing, it might have been some shoving, but even then I'm (unsure)."
The man had been staying at the Welcome Hall mission for the last four days, said director Cyril Morgan.
"We tried several times to have him go into a program and try to get him off the streets, but he circled between the three shelters in Montreal for all those years," he said.
Police say they do not know much about Mohammadi.
"We don’t have much information," said Asselin. "If any members of the family recognize him, we hope that they come forward."
The injured police officer's life is not in danger and was released from hospital Friday night. The other officer was treated for shock.
The SQ is investigating the incident. When a police officer is involved in an altercation, it is customary in Quebec for another police force to handle the case.
This is the second time within a year that a homeless man has been shot by Montreal police. In June, Mario Hamel was fatally wounded by police following an altercation. A bystander was also shot and killed by police in that incident.
Homeless man Patrick Roussy, who did not know Mohammadi, said killing him seemed unnecessary.
"The man may have had a knife, but for police to shoot him in public, in front of people... They just had to immobilize him... to wound him," he said, adding that other members of the homeless community were not happy with the events that occurred.
Pearce said he felt police have made improvements with regards to how they handle the homeless population, but have more work to do.
"I think the police in Montreal have, over the course of time, been learning a great deal about how to manage the homeless," he said.
"There's some positive change, but… I'm not convinced the police are getting all the training they need to take a tense situation with a homeless person and reduce that tension."
Pearce said violent behaviour within the 30,000 members of the homeless population is relatively rare, but needs to be dealt with accordingly when it arises.
"If someone has got a knife and is in a public place, something has to be done," he said.
But, Price added, "let's try to avoid having homeless people with knives in the metro in the first place, and get them into programs to deal with the stress they're under and issues they face."
With files from The Canadian Press
