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A 23-year-old man and his mother claimed Racial profilingAbuse of authority and excessive use of force Montreal Police Earlier this month, he was pulled over while driving.
The family of the aspiring professional football player is seeking answers from authorities after he was allegedly handcuffed and wrongly ticketed in the city’s north.
“I feel really bad. I feel humiliated because I’m not that kind of person,” Jeff Gerwell, who is black, told reporters Tuesday as he detailed the allegations. “I’m a good person.”
The incident occurred around 7pm on August 12 when Guervil, a defender, was driving to a football game.
“As I was driving, a police car saw me, and when I drove in front of him, he saw me and stopped me,” Gerwell said.
Gévier said the police asked him for identification, so he handed over his insurance policy and a temporary document from the Quebec Automobile Insurance Agency (SAAQ).
Because of an unspecified technical problem with the SAAQ, Guervil had to obtain a temporary document from the provincial office to prove he was authorized to drive the vehicle.
Gelvill said he waited 30 minutes and managed to call his mother, at which point a police officer returned and asked him to get out of the car “because my driver’s license might be fake.”
“They grabbed me and pushed me,” he said.
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At that point, he was handcuffed and put in the back seat of a police car, Gerwell said.
“They handcuffed me so tight. I couldn’t feel my hands,” he said of the handcuffs.
Jeff Guervil says he felt humiliated when he was stopped by Montreal police on Aug. 12, 2024.
Global News
Fo Niemi, executive director of the Center for Action Research on Race Relations (CRARR), a civil rights advocacy group, said police “arrested Gervill without explaining the reasons for the arrest and handcuffing him.”
When Guervil’s mother, Sheila Dragon, arrived at the scene, she began filming the scene on her cellphone. She said there were about four or five police cars on the scene.
After waiting for nearly an hour, Gerwell was issued a $1,076 ticket for driving without a valid license, and he also faces a criminal charge of obstructing official business.
“To this day he still doesn’t know why, because he still doesn’t know why he was arrested,” Niemi said.
The vehicle was also impounded. The next day, the SAAQ sent Guervil a letter stating that his vehicle should not have been impounded and could be taken away.
“Since then, we have discovered that this impoundment should not have occurred, so we have lifted the impound. As a result, we are authorizing you to retrieve your vehicle today at no charge,” the Aug. 13 letter reads.
Meanwhile, Guervil’s mother was allegedly fined $50 for jaywalking while she was recording the incident on her phone.
The family believes police tried to contact them the next day by phone and in person, but they were too scared to open the door or answer calls from anonymous numbers.
Gervir dreams of playing professional soccer in the United States, but the consequences of this arrest could put his dream on hold.
“Having a criminal charge or a criminal record could ruin his future,” Niemi said.
Describing the allegations, Dragon said what happened to her son was “not normal” and left her feeling “humiliated.”
“I don’t want this to happen to anybody else north of Montreal in the future,” said Gervill.
CRAAR said it plans to challenge the charges in court and take the matter to Quebec’s human rights tribunal and the province’s police ethics commission.
Montreal police said they could not comment on specific interventions “in order to prevent any impact on potential judicial, ethical or disciplinary proceedings.”
“If anyone feels they have been treated unfairly during a police intervention, they can file a complaint with the SPVM or an independent organization,” police said in an email on Tuesday. “That being said, we will check with the relevant authorities.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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