How police responded to Quebec mosque shooting

MONTREAL—The call came in at 7:54 p.m. on a frigid Sunday night.

A shooter had opened fire at Quebec City’s Grand Mosque. A man was on the ground. The air rang out with gunshots.

Then the phones of the 9-1-1 dispatcher lit up.

“There were many dead at the scene,” reads a police affidavit recounting what emergency responders found the night of Jan. 29, when six people were killed shortly after evening prayers.

Read the full coverage on the Quebec mosque shooting

The affidavit was written by a Sureté du Québec investigator the day after the shooting in order to obtain a search warrant that would allow police to seize a personal computer belonging to Alexandre Bissonnette, the alleged shooter.

Friends and associates have described Bissonnette as a bullied and isolated loner who harboured extreme right-wing political views and was a fan of United States President Donald Trump.

The heavily redacted court document was released to the media Friday. The information deemed suitable for release focuses on the police response in the minutes and hours following the shooting.

On that night, two officers were responding to a call at a nearby bus station, a short drive from the mosque, and they joined with another unit that was making its way to the scene.

Before they arrived, they were informed of reports saying the shooting had been carried out by a man with a submachine gun.

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They blocked off the roads around the mosque with their cruisers. They approached, with guns drawn. One officer found two bodies on the ground, covered in blood, just in front of the entrance to the building.

Worried about the possibility of a second shooter, police first secured the outside of the building before heading inside.

“Right after heading inside, they saw two other lifeless bodies, bringing the number of victims to four,” the affidavit noted.

One constable noted, upon arriving in the prayer room with his service pistol drawn, that “many people are standing, sitting or lying down.”

Two other officers on the scene reported finding two men hiding in a room, one of whom was bleeding profusely from his leg and was in a state of shock.

But police still took no chances.

Those who could do so were ordered to put their hands in the air and refrain from moving.

The affidavit appears to make reference to a second man who was arrested as a suspect in the shooting before being released the following day.

Mohamed Belkhadir had been taking part in prayers and was attending to someone who had been shot when he was arrested.

The pages of witness testimony contained in the affidavit have been redacted because of the criminal trial, which continues. Bissonnette, the 27-year-old from Quebec City, is charged with six counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

The affidavit does note that Bissonnette was arrested at 9:10 p.m. just over two hours after the shooting occurred. The following day, when detectives met with his father, Raymond Bissonnette mentioned that Alexandre had a twin brother, Mathieu, as well as a personal computer that was located at the parents’ home.

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