Quebec Officers Honoured for Bravery

[canuckofapeach]

MONTREAL (CP) - The Montreal police officer who shot Dawson College killer Kimveer Gill was among a group of Quebec police officers honoured Thursday for their acts of bravery.

In all, five Montreal police officers directly involved in the standoff at the Montreal college were among 33 officers singled out at a special ceremony. Denis Cote, one of the five officers, took the shot that brought down gunman Kimveer Gill on Sept. 13. The 42-year-old officer said Gill was using two young male students as a human shield and was headed for other classrooms when Cote saw his chance.

"He fired several times in our direction and he knew where we were," Cote said.

"I had a window of opportunity where I could see the shooter so I fired to simply put an end to the threat."

Cote said he had to make a quick decision.

"It was a question of seconds, I'd say three or four seconds," he said.

The 22-year police veteran hit Gill in the arm before the gunman shot himself to death.

But Cote said he didn't consider himself a hero after the shooting.

"I would say at that precise moment, you simply feel that technically you did your job. . you're conditioned to do it.

He said he didn't realize the magnitude of what he done until he thought about it some time later.

Also joining the ranks of this year's Quebec police heroes were two officers from the Chateauguay Police service on Montreal's south shore.

Constables Claude Frechette, 40, and Nicolas Veilleux, 26, responded to a call on July 26 about a man who drenched himself and his bedroom in gasoline and threatened to set himself in fire.

Frechette said they arrived to find three crying children who told them their father wanted to commit suicide.

After getting the children out of the house, the officer began negotiations that lasted almost two hours.


He said the man, who was kneeling on his bed, had a lighter in one hand and a knife in the other. He even asked the officer to leave the room so he could set himself on fire.

"We're trained to be patient, to negotiate with people in crisis. . . it's part of the job," Frechette said.

"We never know how these things are going to end. . we can only hope they end well.

Frechette said the man later called and thanked them for what they did.

Seven RCMP officers involved in an undercover operation that included a seizure of illegal drugs on the highs seas off the coast of Africa last May also received awards, handed out by Quebec's police associations.

RCMP Cpl. Guy Masse said the drug dealers agreed to pick up hashish shipments from Pakistan in coastal waters.

The Mountie admitted he was worried the dealers may have been armed, but that didn't happen. The biggest problem for his officers was sea sickness.

"They were 43 days at sea and they were very happy to come back," he said.

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/National/0...n1123181A.html