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MONTREAL — Police officers in an off-island suburb of Montreal fatally shot a 15-year-old boy only 10 seconds after they parked their car on scene, the family’s lawyers alleged Tuesday as they announced a civil lawsuit against the officers involved and the city of Longueuil, Que.
The shots that killed Nooran Rezayi on Sept. 21 rang out less than three seconds after an officer could be heard on video yelling at a group of youths to get on the ground, according to the $2.2 million lawsuit.
Six members of Rezayi’s family allege Longueuil police used unreasonable and disproportionate force when they opened fire on the teenager. The allegations have not been tested in court.
The victim’s mother, Fahima Rezayi, described her son as a kind, cheerful and funny child who wanted a “simple, happy life” and dreamt of travelling and opening a business — possibly a barber shop.
“They killed my child for nothing,” she told reporters at a news conference alongside the family’s lawyers. “Why was this officer in such a hurry to fire two bullets at Nooran without even taking the time to think? He didn’t even give him five seconds to lie down.”
She said police also waited more than five hours after the shooting before informing the family the teen had died.
“We want justice, we want this officer to be punished and the police department to take responsibility,” she said.
The City of Longueuil declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Rezayi was shot dead after officers responded to a 911 call about a group of armed young people in a residential neighbourhood in Longueuil.
Quebec’s independent police watchdog later revealed the only gun seized at the scene belonged to the officer who shot the teenager. Officers seized a baseball bat, a backpack and ski masks, but no sharp-edged weapons, the watchdog said.
Their investigation into the shooting continues.
The family’s lawyers said they obtained the security camera footage from nearby homes and showed it to reporters at a news conference.
Based on the footage, the lawsuit claims that Rezayi and five friends — all racialized teenagers — were sitting on the sidewalk of the suburban neighbourhood looking at their phones when a police car turned the corner and drove down the street at high speed. Five of the teens, included Rezayi, started to run.
Two other videos, timestamped about four minutes later and shown at the news conference, capture audio of a voice yelling “lay down on the ground!” before the sound of two shots is heard. The videos do not show the shooting.
Virginie Dufresne-Lemire, one of the family’s lawyers, said that, “for us, it is clear that the police did not act reasonably.”
She said police officers have a right to use force, but have an obligation to use it as a last resort, and to apply it gradually and proportionally. They also have a duty to assess the scene appropriately, she said.
In this case, she said the officers should have slowed down and given the teens a chance to comply with orders. “Had they done so, they would have found no weapon, except for a baseball bat in a bag, and they would have been obligated to release them,” she said. “It would have been a non-event.”
She noted that some groups of people, including those who are racialized, are subjected to higher levels of violence, “notably due to institutionalized racism.”
Another of the family’s lawyers, Fernando Belton, criticized the leak to media of the contents of a 911 call placed the day of the shooting, in which the caller reported seeing a group of 15 to 20 individuals armed with a baseball bat, pepper spray, and a gun.
The caller’s reported account contrasts with the surveillance video, which shows six youth “sitting on the sidewalk, doing absolutely nothing” four minutes before the shooting, Belton said.
He said the lawyers do not know the names of the officers involved, and have not been able to see any camera footage of the shooting or hear the 911 call, but are hoping to obtain that information as part of the lawsuit.
The Montreal police are conducting a parallel criminal investigation in connection with shooting, but they have not released further evidence or any video footage collected from the scene.
Montreal police and the police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, both declined to comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2025.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
