Friends and family held a vigil Friday morning to remember five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Belance, who died a year ago following a car accident with a speeding police vehicle.
The crash happened during rush hour the morning of Feb. 13th, 2014, when his father, Mike Belance, was making a left-hand turn from Gaetan-Boucher Blvd. onto Davis Blvd. in St-Hubert, just south of Montreal, and a provincial police squad car rammed the family’s vehicle. The little boy died four days later.
The SQ officer was not charged with any criminal accusations. Prosecutors took into account that the father had turned on a solid green, instead of waiting for a flashing green light.
At Friday’s vigil at the site of the accident, family friend Lincoln Virgo told CTV News they are still angry the police officer was never charged.
“It's not fair to blame the father for something they did,” said Virgo. “He was driving dangerously. If I had done that, I'd be in prison now. This police is able to do dangerous driving causing death, and they try to blame the father.”
The SQ police officer driving an unmarked vehicle crashed into the right-hand side of the car, destroying the front end of the police cruiser and knocking Belance’s car across the street and into a stop sign.
All three occupants of the car were sent to hospital with serious injuries. The 31-year-old driver and the 14-year-old survived. The Jaws of Life had to be used to remove the five-year-old from the car.
Documents later showed the police officer was working undercover for UPAC, the Quebec anti-corruption unit, and was trailing former Liberal party director Robert Parent.
