Vigil marks one year since Nooran Rezayi shot and killed by police in Longueuil

LONGUEUIL – Frozan Rezayi wiped away tears as she stood outside a Longueuil police station on Monday evening and spoke about her 15-year-old brother, one year after he was shot and killed by a local police officer.

“How has it already been a year since they took my brother’s life? And there are still no answers,” she told a crowd of more than a dozen people gathered to remember Nooran Rezayi.

Nooran’s family, friends and supporters marked the anniversary of his death by leading a 20-minute walk from the police station in Longueuil’s Saint-Hubert borough to the location where Rezayi was killed on Sept. 21, 2025.

Quebec’s police watchdog completed its investigation into the shooting in March and submitted its report to Quebec prosecutors, who must determine whether criminal charges should be laid.

But the watchdog and prosecutors haven’t disclosed what they found.

Frozan remembered her brother as “the light of our home, of our days,” a teenager who loved making people laugh and smile.

“He was a son, a brother, a cousin, a friend, a nephew, a child,” she said. “A child who brought joy everywhere he went.”

Many of those gathered were dressed in black, while Rezayi’s relatives wore white-T-shirts bearing a photograph of the teenager smiling and giving a thumbs-up alongside the words “Justice for Nooran.” A number of people in the crowd wore medical masks with the same words written in black ink.

Others carried signs reading “Nooran means light” and “Forever 15,” while a large banner called for an end to police violence.

Rezayi was killed after Longueuil police responded to a 911 call reporting a group of allegedly armed youths in a residential neighbourhood in Saint-Hubert.

Surveillance video released by the family’s lawyers appeared to show Rezayi was shot within seconds of police arriving at the scene.

Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, later said the only firearm seized at the scene belonged to the officer who shot Rezayi. Investigators also seized a baseball bat, a backpack and ski masks.

After arriving at the spot where her son was killed, Fahima Rezayi clutched a small framed photograph of her son and cried out: “Justice for my son, justice for our family.” 

Six members of Rezayi’s family have filed a $2.2-million civil lawsuit against the City of Longueuil and its police force. The lawsuit alleges officers used unreasonable and disproportionate force. The allegations have not been tested in court.

Speaking at the vigil, family lawyer Fernando Belton said the lack of information about the watchdog’s investigation into the shooting has left Rezayi’s relatives living with uncertainty.

Belton told the crowd the young people had been sitting on a sidewalk with their phones when police arrived and that Rezayi was shot within seconds.

“Today, it is time to say: enough,” he said.

Belton added that Rezayi’s death has left other young people wondering about their own safety during encounters with police. “I think of every one of these young people who ask themselves, ‘Will I be next?’” he said.

He also spoke of parents fearing for their children’s safety when they leave home.

“I think of the mothers who have to send their child to school and who are forced to tell them, ‘Please, my boy, come back. Come back alive,’” Belton said.

He told Rezayi’s relatives their legal team would continue seeking answers. “We’re going to fight until the end to get justice for Nooran,” he said.

The Quebec government has also launched an administrative investigation into the Longueuil police service over its actions following the shooting.

Police forces are required to notify the watchdog as soon as possible about serious incidents involving injuries or the death of civilians. But it took Longueuil police one hour and 36 minutes to notify the watchdog after Nooran was shot, according to correspondence released last December by the office of Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier.

The correspondence between the watchdog and the police force also indicated that Longueuil officers continued questioning witnesses at the scene.

Longueuil police have defended their actions, saying it was “reasonable and justified” for them to delay notifying the watchdog because they were responding to a call about an alleged threat in the area.

Meanwhile, Montreal police conducted a separate criminal investigation into the alleged events preceding Rezayi’s death.

Eleven young people were charged in June, but prosecutors stayed the proceedings in August after obtaining new evidence that raised what they described as a complex legal issue. None of the charges involved possession of a firearm or harm to another person.

As the vigil returned to the place where her brother died, Frozan Rezayi urged those around her to keep saying his name.

“We are here to speak for Nooran, so that he is remembered,” she said. “So that his name continues to be heard.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2026.

— with files from Erika Morris and Morgan Lowrie in Montreal