Nearly a year after Toronto resident Gulad Umar was violently arrested in north of Montreal on the video, he said that the Laval Police Department had recently informed him of the allegations made against him.
Omar said, “It is unfortunate to see me charging after 11 months.” “I am 31 years old, I have never been blamed in my life. Nothing. I do an office job with the government in Ontario and just threw me away from the guard.”
Allegations including opposing arrest and attacking two officers.
On 1 September last year, Omar was in the Montreal region for the first time, celebrated a career milestone with friends and family. Outside one night, things took a turn.
As he was waiting outside his park’s rented car near a lounge, he says he was unexpectedly approached by the police.
“Initially, they were trying to say that they pulled me, but I was walking,” he said. “I was going away and they were pulling up and shouted, ‘Go back into the car’ and I am saying, ‘You are asking me to go back to your car. I just went, you guys don’t pull me.”
Omar is described that he shouted and caught. He says that when he asked why he was being taken into custody, he did not get any response.
After the 2024 incident, the first citynews brought you to the days of Omar’s story. At that time, the Laval police told Citynues in a statement that the authorities stopped the Toronto man to check his ability to operate a vehicle and refused to cooperate.
“I made a proper distance to say,” Don’t touch me, I know my rights. ” And he caught me from there. ,
Omar says he was punched, kneaded, strolled, and a pepper-spray and said that the police placed his knees on his neck.
“I can’t breathe,” he said.
The video already starts from Omar on the ground and whatever happened before that does not have footage.
“We don’t know because they have control of the story because there is no body camera,” he said. “Imagine that there was no camera and my friends did not film that day.”
The Laval police say they removed their allegations in Laval city on September 10, 2024 against Omar.
Omar says he was issued a ticket at the time of the incident, but was not arrested. He said that he received a summons sheet of this charge in July only on 26 June.
Meanwhile, the city of Laval says that the Bureau of Criminal and Penal Prosecution does not want to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.
Omar claims that the allegations in vengeance are late. It is now due to fingerprinting at the end of this month and returning to Lawal to appear in a court.
“It is more reactive than anything, that they are doing so on the basis of us proceeding with the lawsuit,” he said. “We were waiting to see if they would come with any kind [resolutions]Nothing forgiveness and nothing came. ,
Omar says that he started a civil suit in the hope of changing the officers to wear body cameras.
“We need policy change,” he said. “If I can be a punching bag for visible minorities, then to take a lifetime beating – I survived – as a big, 6’4 black man and I survived, I really felt that I was going to die.”
Even after almost a year, Omar has described the effects on his life – affecting him at a personal level but also his career. He says that his mental health has been on a decline since then.
“Even today, I will see a police, I don’t feel safe,” he said. “Even though it has never happened to me in Toronto in my life, but now I am still very worried, there are panic attacks – I am sleeping, gasping for the wind. It’s unfortunate.”
