Montreal police racially profiled Black man during traffic stop, judge rules

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Nearly four years later, Lamine Sale Nkouendji still can’t bring himself to watch the video recording of his violent arrest at the hands of Montreal police.

Captured by a bystander, the video shows Nkouendji wailing in pain as he’s pepper-sprayed twice, pulled from his car, and brought to the ground while being handcuffed.

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Now, a judge has confirmed what Nkouendji always believed: Last week, the court ruled the traffic stop was fuelled by racial profiling, acquitting him of an obstruction charge he faced.

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“I’m just glad it’s over with and justice prevailed,” Nkouendji, 27, said in an interview this week.

The case dates back to the summer of 2020.

Nkouendji was stopped at a red light in Outremont when he noticed a police officer driving in the opposite direction stare at him. Moments later, he saw the police cruiser pull a U-turn behind him and overtake other cars to pull him over.

Once pulled over, Nkouendji recorded the two officers as they asked him a series of questions. He was told he was being stopped for running a yellow light, which he insists he never did.

When he presented his driver’s licence from Cameroon, the questions shifted to his immigration status and whether he was allowed to be driving in Quebec.

“It’s because I’m Black that you turned around,” Nkouendji is heard telling the officers.

The traffic stop deteriorated when Nkouendji was informed the rental car he was driving was to be towed, since his right to drive was sanctioned due to unpaid tickets. When he refused to get out of his car, the officers started forcing him out.

The video captured by a bystander shows one of the officers trying to pepper-spray Nkouendji in the face but missing. The officer then positioned himself to spray him directly in the eyes as he was already exiting the car.

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“My arm! My arm!” Nkouendji is heard yelling through high-pitched screams. “My eyes are burning!”

At trial, the two officers involved, Adrien Gagné and Guillaume Michel-Black, insisted race had nothing to do with the traffic stop.

Rather, they explained that after first crossing Nkouendji, they looked back at the car to see its licence plate and noticed it was an “F-type” plate usually used for commercial cars.

Gagné explained that from experience, those plates were often used by people driving without licences or sanctioned licences . He argued that’s the only reason they decided to follow Nkouendji and, in doing so, witnessed him run a yellow light.

Montreal municipal court Judge Gabriel Boutros rejected the argument outright.

“There was nothing to alert (Gagné) that the defendant’s vehicle had an F-type licence plate, or to attract his attention to the vehicle, apart from the fact the driver is a young Black man,” Boutros wrote.

Boutros ruled the officers’ interest in Nkouendji’s car was unjustified and described their claim he ran a yellow light as “dubious.”

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“The Tribunal concludes the facts indicate that, at least at an unconscious level, the driver’s race played a role in the decision to investigate his licence plate and, eventually, to intercept him,” the judge wrote.

Contacted for this article, the Montreal police department said it is sensitive to the details described in the case and has taken note of the judgment.

“We can confirm that an analysis of this decision is underway,” a spokesperson wrote. “Under the circumstances, we will not be making any further comment.”

In an interview, Nkouendji’s lawyer, Fernando Belton, said it’s rare for someone to be acquitted in Quebec on the basis of racial profiling — to his knowledge, he added, this is only the second time it’s happened.

He commended the judge for recognizing the nuances the issue presents.

“The judge clearly understood and identified what constitutes proof of racial profiling,” Belton said.

Nkouendji still has an ongoing $300,000 lawsuit against the city of Montreal and the police department over the arrest.

The last four years ,  and the trial in particular , have been challenging for him. Every time the video of the arrest was played in the courtroom, he requested to leave, the sounds of his screams bringing him right back to how he felt that day.

Nkouendji said he now understands it was negligent of him to be driving with a sanctioned licence, but says he wasn’t aware of it at the time.

Still, he does not feel it justifies the way he was treated. Asked if he always believed he would be acquitted, he said he put his trust in the justice system.

“I truly believed that anyone could see something wasn’t right in this case,” he added. “And could see I was treated differently.”

jfeith@postmedia.com

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