Officer killed in Montreal shooting was father with child on way

Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, a Montreal police officer killed in the line of duty on June 23, leaves behind a young child and a pregnant wife, according to the Montreal Police Brotherhood president.

Benredouane's death marked the first police officer killed in the line of duty in Montreal since 2002. He had been an SPVM officer since 2021.

His colleagues knew him as calm and well-liked. "Mohamed was serene, very calm, very polite, very composed," said Ahmed Taalbi, who played goalie with Benredouane in the Ligue Amicale Maghrébine de Soccer Montreal. "Honestly, I think God must have taken the gentlest one."

Benredouane and civilian Michael Moshe Mizrahi were killed after officers responded to a report of a gun muzzle sticking out a Hilton Hotel window in the Côte-des-Neiges borough around 11:35 a.m. The officers were shot at from street level. A 25-year-old suspect from Alberta was killed in a subsequent shootout with police.

Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor Stéphanie Valenzuela was brought to tears. "He went to school in the neighbourhood and many of my friends, many people in my network knew him personally," she said. "This morning when I woke up, on my social media there were flashback pictures of him from high school."

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said of the officers on scene: "I think it hit the nail on the head with our team. I hope they feel that they can be proud. Somebody that was there didn't think twice about protecting Montrealers, and we can say thank you."

An online fundraiser for Benredouane's family raised more than $95,000 in just a few hours.