An Île-Bizard family has been awarded $30,000 after they sued Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) over the contents of a statement concerning their son’s death during an intervention by Montreal police in March 2017.

The BEI is called in to investigate whenever serious injury or death occurs during a police operation in Quebec. It was assigned to investigate the circumstances of the death on March 6, 2017 of 28-year-old Koray Kevin Celik.

Celik was intoxicated and in a state of crisis at his family’s home in Île-Bizard when his parents called 911 for help, fearing he might injure himself.

Celik suffered a fatal heart attack while police tried to subdue him, but his parents, who witnessed the intervention, maintain that police initiated the violence upon arrival.