{"id":787152,"date":"2026-07-08T00:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787152\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T00:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:16:13","slug":"thousands-honour-montreal-officer-killed-in-the-line-of-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787152\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands honour Montreal officer killed in the line of duty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An SPVM police officer places the cap of Montreal police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane next to his portrait during a ceremony in his honour, in Montreal on Tuesday.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Long before Mohamed Lamine Benredouane became a constable in Montreal, he was a little boy who dreamed of being a police officer. <\/p>\n

Growing up in Skikda, Algeria, he would ride around in his father\u2019s work vehicle, equipped with a flashing light his dad would turn on just for him. He loved uniforms, too, and years later he would carefully polish his boots and clean his bulletproof vest before every shift. <\/p>\n

His childhood dream came true on Dec. 3, 2021, when he took his oath of office and joined the Montreal police force. Less than five years later, the dream was cut short. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, thousands of police officers from across the country gathered at the Bell Centre in Montreal to pay homage to Constable Benredouane, killed last month during a gunfight<\/a> near a Hilton hotel in the city\u2019s C\u00f4te-des-Neiges district. <\/p>\n

On the morning of June 22, Constable Benredouane and his female partner responded to a 911 call about an armed man at the hotel, and were met with gunfire when they arrived on the scene. Constable Benredouane and a bystander, 68-year-old Michel Mizrahi, were killed in the ensuing gunfight, as was the alleged shooter, a university student from Lethbridge, Alta. Constable Benredouane\u2019s partner was seriously injured. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur world has come crashing down,\u201d the slain officer\u2019s twin brother Ahmed Rochdi Benredouane said speaking alongside their two sisters at the memorial Tuesday. \u201cWe have lost a son, a husband, a father, a brother, a friend and a colleague. Personally, I have lost my other half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal police officers take part in a procession in honour of Constable Benredouane.Graham Hughes\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Constable Benredouane moved to Canada with his family when he was 13 years old, settling in the same C\u00f4te-des-Neiges neighbourhood where he would later serve. He recently started a family of his own, with a young son and a second child on the way. <\/p>\n

In an emotional speech, Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher described the 34-year-old as a brave and kind-hearted officer who took care of those around him. Through tears, he addressed Constable Benredouane\u2019s son, not yet three years old, and his unborn child. \u201cI\u2019m sorry I wasn\u2019t able to bring your dad back to you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Constable Benredouane was one of three police officers killed in the line of duty in Canada last month. On June 11, less than two weeks before his death, Toronto Police Service Constable Marc Pinizzotto<\/a> was shot and killed during the planned takedown of an alleged shooters-for-hire network. On June 9, Ontario Provincial Police Constable Tarun Bali was struck by a car in the remote community of Hearst. <\/p>\n

A private funeral service was held for Constable Benredouane two days after the shooting. He is the first Montreal police officer in 24 years to be killed on duty. <\/p>\n

After Tuesday\u2019s public ceremony, Chief Dagher told reporters that the injured police officer is doing \u201cbetter and better,\u201d but did not say whether she will return to active duty. <\/p>\n

He also suggested he will take up the fight against the availability of the SKS rifle, a semi-automatic weapon believed to have been used by the shooter. \u201cSeveral police officers in Canada have been killed by that weapon,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s certain that, eventually, this will be one of my battlegrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: The Montreal shooting revealed how antiporn rhetoric is being taken up by incels<\/a><\/p>\n

Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, has been identified as the suspect in the shooting. A manifesto attributed to Mr. Hatfield expresses various grievances and complains that \u201ccommon males\u201d debase themselves watching pornography because they aren\u2019t successful with women. The Globe previously reported that, according to a national security source, the nearby offices of adult-content distributor Aylo, which runs the website Pornhub, may have been the target of the shooter. <\/p>\n

During the memorial service, Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette said the families of police officers live with the knowledge that their loved ones might not come home at the end of the day. \u201cBehind every uniform there is a person, loved ones, dreams, an entire life,\u201d she said. \u201cA family that is also called upon to take the risk of this ultimate sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the ceremony, roughly 6,000 officers from across the country marched in a solemn procession through downtown Montreal, the surrounding streets closed to traffic and eerily silent. Their numbers eclipsed the small crowd that lined the boulevard to watch them pass. <\/p>\n

Among those watching were Richard Daneau and Nathalie Gareau, parents of another Montreal police officer who knew Constable Benredouane. For them, the shooting hit close to home. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lottery. The killer was waiting for the first police officer,\u201d Mr. Daneau said. \u201cIt could have been our boy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An SPVM police officer places the cap of Montreal police officer Mohamed Lamine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,2338,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-787152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-montreal","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}