The Montreal police force said it has told officers to stop using a controversial “hog-tie” restraint technique after a man’s death last year.
The directive was issued after a Quebec coroner found the technique may have contributed to the death of 29-year-old Abisay Cruz during a 2025 police intervention in Montreal.
In her report, coroner Géhane Kamel concluded Cruz died from cocaine intoxication and probable positional asphyxia during the March 2025 police intervention. Kamel said it was ”highly likely” the position which he was held in contributed to his death.
Kamel determined Cruz had toxic levels of cocaine in his bloodstream when he died and ruled the death as being accidental. However, she said Cruz was held on his stomach with his limbs tied behind his back for more than two minutes, which poses serious risk for asphyxiation.
Cruz, was declared dead in hospital after an intervention with Montreal police in March of 2025 at his mother’s home in Saint-Michel neighborhood, a working-class neighbourhood with large Latin American, Haitian and North African communities.
Neighbours and family members took video recordings and photos of the incident.
“In one of the videos one of the officers involved did say ‘yes, we know that you’re in distress’,” family lawyer René Saint-Léger told Global News back in April of 2025.
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According to the province’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), police were called to the apartment shortly after 8 a.m. responding to a person in crisis on an apartment balcony. Saint-Léger said the family didn’t know who placed the call, why police arrived in such large numbers, and why officers were, in the family’s view, overly aggressive.
“One witness said one officer kicked Mr. Cruz in the belly when he was already raising his hands as if to surrender,” said Fo Niemi, head of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), who advocated for the family of the Latin American man.
Saint-Léger told Global that once Cruz was on the ground he was forcefully subdued. “One of the officers had his knee on his back, almost touching his neck.”
In her report, coroner Kamel said officers should have moved Cruz to his side as soon as possible, even if he was still agitated.
In her recommendations, Kamel urged Montreal police to ensure its officers are able to recognize signs of medical distress, especially when in cases involving intoxication. She noted a sergeant was present and should have provided better directives to the officers.
Kamel’s recommendations also included implementing body cameras for police officers, as police and witness accounts of the events leading to Cruz’s death differ significantly.
Officers reported that Cruz charged at the first officer who arrived on the balcony of the apartment, and that the officer responded by kicking him in the stomach and tackling him to the ground to handcuff him. Police also said Cruz hit his head against the balcony’s metal structure and that they placed a pillow under him to prevent further injury.
But witnesses say Cruz was sat with his hands in the air, seemingly wanting to communicate with the officers who then kicked him in the stomach, head, and face before tackling him. Cruz’s mother said officers continued to hit him after he was handcuffed.
The mother said she begged the officers to stop and told them her son needed help and was in an altered state of mind.
According to Cruz’s family, he was under duress as he was in the midst of deportation proceedings to Honduras. They described him as an affectionate man who was very devoted to his loved ones and maintained close ties with his family.
The coroner believes Cruz went into respiratory arrest while officers carried him downstairs.
Montreal police say they support the coroner’s recommendations and will continue reviewing the report and implementing them.
–with files from Phil Carpenter and The Canadian Press
