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Montreal police officer charged with manslaughter in 2016 death

Last Updated May 24, 2017 at 2:20 pm MDT

MONTREAL – A Montreal police officer has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a man in a drug raid last year.

Christian Gilbert hit Bony Jean-Pierre in the head with a plastic bullet as the man was trying to clamber out of a window in the building where the police operation was taking place.

Jean-Pierre fell from the window and suffered further injuries when he hit the ground on March 31, 2016.

He was declared dead in hospital.

His death sparked a riot in the borough of Montreal North about a week later, with the local police station vandalized and police cruisers torched.

If found guilty, Gilbert faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Note to readers: This is a corrected version; a previous story had the dead man’s names inversed