Police shootout costs a woman $1000

Date: 9 FEB 2017posted by Car Rentaledited by WinX

Shannon Ojero, of Brantford, Ontario lent her 2007 black Lexus to her daughter to go to Montreal and spend five days over New Years Eve. Angela Bradt, 17, had originally asked her mother to go to Toronto, but settled for Montreal since Shannon thought Toronto would be too dangerous for her daughter and friends, but little did she know they were at the wrong place and a bad time. Returning to their hotel in the early hours of the 31st after some festivities, Bradt had parked the car to return to her room for less than 10 minutes before she heard gunfire erupt outside. The teenagers watched as police swarmed the area and shut down the street. "I said to myself, 'I should probably move my car if something like that's going down before it gets shot but I didn't do anything," said Bradt in an interview. However, when she went to move her car in the morning, police denied her access to her car. "He said, 'is that your car, miss?' and I said, 'oh yeah, sure, tell me that it's not shot, hasn't it been?' and he goes, 'Uh, yeah, maybe twice,' and I went, 'Great'."

The Lexus was hit by two stray bullets in the front, and was leaking coolant which deemed it undriveable. Police later towed the car away as part of the investigation. According to Quebec's Bureau des enquetes independantes - the provincial police oversight agency that takes over investigations when someone is injured during a police operation, revealed the incident started with a bar fight which happened a few blocks away from the hotel. Police ended up giving chase to a man that was noticed carry a fire arm. And eventually, the man turned and opened fire, only to have police return fire, one bullet hitting him and two into the black Lexus. The teens were already on edge by what happened and even had trouble leaving the hotel since there was so much police activity going on outside. One helpful officer did end up driving the teens to a car rental company, but they were denied a a rental since they were too young.

The teens had to cut their losses and had to bus home. The Lexus would not be released till later and had to be towed back to Brantford. Almost a 650 km 6 and a half hour trip. The gunshots caused over $2700 in damages but the insurance company will not let the $1000 deductible to not be paid. The City of Montreal can reimburse people for material damages through its claims office for a number of reasons, including damages caused by driving over potholes, and property damaged by city snow removal operations. Material damages due to SPVM (Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal) can also be reimbursed by the city if proven the police were at fault. Ojero said she had difficulties meeting the 15 day deadline for making a claim due to the struggles of finding someone that could speak English to her. She later received a brief letter to say she was out of time to file a claim. When she called back, the man on the line told her "Police were not in the wrong, so we're denying your claim." Ojero is in disbelief, "Well I wasn't in the wrong either, some somebody has to like pipe up here." Someone else at the city now has told her to fill out a two-page complaint form and she's hoping that will lead to her reimbursement.

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