One day after learning that Nicous D'Andre Spring was illegally detained in jail when he sustained fatal injuries, around 100 loved ones held a candlelight vigil to remember the 21-year-old Montreal musician.
Friends and family gathered Friday evening in Montreal's Benny Park in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood where Brandon Ragain would often hang out with D'Andre Spring.
"The system failed us," said Ragain, who described what happened to his friend of 14 years as "an injustice."
"To know that on Christmas Eve, when he should have come out to spend time with his mother, and nephews, and nieces, he was beaten down, pepper sprayed and his life got snuffed out on Christmas Day. Of course, it's hard," he said.
"This is someone I grew up with. It's hard for me, but his mother's over there crying her eyes out and that's something that's never going to change.
She's always going to feel this hurt for the rest of her life."
Quebec's Ministry of Public Safety confirmed Thursday that D'Andre Spring should have been released on bail on Dec. 23, but for reasons that are still unclear, he was held illegally in Montreal's Bordeaux jail.
On Dec. 24, he was seriously injured during an intervention by a correctional officer and succumbed to injuries in hospital the following day.
Marie-Josée Montminy, a spokesperson for the ministry, said on Wednesday in a statement to CTV News that a correctional officer has been suspended in relation to the young man's death.
His immediate family did not want to speak to reporters at the solemn gathering on Friday.
On the sidelines of the vigil, Ragain remembered his longtime friend as a "young, aspiring musician" with so much potential ahead of him, and as someone who was always smiling and soft-spoken. D'Andre Spring was a Montreal rapper under the name "YK Lyrical" who shared his music on YouTube over the past three years.
"He had a musician's dream and it's a shame that he couldn't realize that now," the childhood friend told reporters.
As music played at the park as a tribute to the aspiring rapper, people held candles in the air and cried out, some with tears streaming down their faces.
Loved ones held signs with messages such as "We love you, Nicous" and "(Notre-Dame-de-Grâce) NDG loves you."
According to Ragain, the treatment of his friend was another example of "deep-rooted" systemic racism that affects not only Black people but other marginalized groups as well.
Brandon Ragain was friends with Nicous D'Andre Spring for 14 years. (CTV News)
On Dec. 24, D'Andre Spring was involved in an altercation with other detainees and while correctional officers moved him to another location, D'Andre Spring tried to bite and spit on the guards, according to the head of the union representing Quebec correctional officers.
Mathieu Lavoie, president of the Syndicat des agents de la paix en services correctionnels du Québec, told Noovo Info that a correctional officer put a "spit mask" on him. A supervisor ordered agents to pepper spray him while he was still wearing the mask.
The ministry said he lost consciousness from the procedure and was sent in an ambulance to hospital, where later died.
LAWYER SAYS HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED
A Montreal lawyer is also raising questions about the corrections system after learning what happened to the young man in the Montreal detention centre.
Eric Sutton, a Montreal criminal defence lawyer who was not involved in the D'Andre Spring matter, said there are rare circumstances in which a detainee would not be released on bail right away. For example, there might be other charges for which the accused was not granted bail or there might be a warrant for an arrest in another jurisdiction that has to be executed.
"Barring those circumstances that can arise, someone who was granted bail should be very promptly released once bail is posted. It should just be a matter of completing the paperwork. It should be very straightforward. These are standard forms. They just tick boxes. The person signs and the person is out," Sutton said in an interview Friday.
"It's not a complicated process, but in this case, why was there a delay? Why was the prison not informed? Or was the prison informed, but the staff weren't? I don't know. The question that I ask myself … was this altercation with the guards caused by this young man insisting that he should be free, he should be released?
What a tragedy. What a tragedy."
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