POLICEMAN DEAD, COLLEAGUE INJURED IN PREDAWN RAID

Hundreds From Various Police Departments To Pay Respect In Friday's
Civic Funeral Service

Detective -Sergent Daniel Tessier, a 17-year veteran with the Laval
Police Department, is dead following a shootout during an
early-morning drug raid in a South Shore home on March 2.

Laval police were conducting a series of drug raids across Laval and
in Brossard. The 42-year-old Tessier and his colleagues entered a
private residence on Rimouski Street in Brossard when a gunfight
erupted. Tessier was shot in the head while his partner, 46-year-old
Stephane Forbes, a 20-yearveteran, was shot in the arm.

Both men were taken to a Greenfield Park hospital, where Tessier was
pronounced dead. He leaves behind a wife, Dominique Lapointe, who is
also a policewoman with the Repentigny police force, and two
daughters, aged 10 and 12. Forbes was admitted with non
life-threatening injuries and may require surgery.

The Surete du Quebec has taken over the investigation.

Laval police Chief Jean-Pierre Gariepy held a press conference on the
day of the shooting to officially announce Tessier's death. He
explained that Tessier had been assigned to the vice and drugs squad
just a week prior to his death.

Gariepy dismissed the notion that Tessier was not properly trained
for the job. "Before an officer can get into these kinds of
situations, they go through intense training and he was perfectly
capable to manage a situation such as occurred this morning," he
said. "Despite all the necessary training and tools, we do dangerous
work, and we constantly cross a thin line whenever we are in the
middle of extremely risky situations."

Gariepy told reporters that two suspects, a man and a woman, were
arrested in connection to the shootings.

A total of eight raids were conducted that day, six in Laval and two
in Brossard, which led to the arrest of six other people.

According to police spokesperson Nathalie Lorrain, it is not unusual
for police officers to conduct raids in other jurisdictions. "If an
investigation involved our city, and if the warrant includes us, then
our police officers can participate in raids in other cities," she explained.

Police say all raids were linked and that they had been watching this
group of people since June 2006. "The people [in Brossard] are
affiliated to the drug problems we are having in Chomedey South,
which deal in drugs such as cocaine and crack," Gariepy said. Laval
police spokesperson Lt. Daniel Guerin could not confirm whether these
raids were linked to the sweeping drug raids that occurred in
Chomedey in July and to an outburst of violence last summer that
police believed were drug-related.

Still reeling from previous police death

Gariepy said that Tessier's death was a huge blow to the nearly 500
Laval police personnel, who have yet to recover from the death of
colleague Valerie Gignac 15 months ago. "The healing process did not
end with Valerie, and now we're already dealing with the death of
another colleague," he said. He explained that professional help and
support will be offered to the police force.

The president of the Laval Police Brotherhood, Gilles Lemieux, was
extremely saddened by the passing of his colleague. "This is a very
difficult time for us, first Valerie, and now Daniel, it is very hard
for us," he said. "He was a team player, a great cop, a great guy and
a great father, and we will miss him dearly." He added that the
Brotherhood will work hard to try to keep morale up within the ranks,
but that it will take a long time.

Police chief Jean-Pierre Gariepy said police work is extremely risky,
comparing the work to flipping a coin. "The majority of the time, the
coin flips on our side and we're safe, but this time, it flipped to
the other side."

Gariepy will spend the next few days with the family.

An official funeral will be held Friday at 1 p.m.