Man charged in incident that led to Mamadi Camara’s wrongful arrest

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Police have arrested the man they believe attempted to murder a police officer in Montreal in late January. The major crimes unit of the SPVM arrested the 21-year-old suspect in Toronto and he will appear in court in Montreal Friday.

Ali Ngarukiye is alleged to have assaulted police officer Sanjay Vig on Jan. 28. The charges are attempted murder, intentionally discharging a prohibited firearm, disarming a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer and vehicle theft. The place where the suspect was arrested in Toronto was searched by the police, as well as other places where he spent time in the past several weeks.

“I would like to congratulate the SPVM police officers for their efforts in this matter,” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said during a Zoom conference about the provincial budget. “He is a suspect who, let us not forget, savagely attacked the police officer Vig. My thoughts are with the family and Mr. Vig of course. We wish him a good recovery.”

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Police originally arrested Mamadi Fara Camara, a Black doctoral student who was detained for six days on the charge that he assaulted Vig. Camara, 31, was arrested on Jan. 28 after his car was pulled over by Vig on Crémazie Blvd. W., and he was given a $500 ticket for allegedly using a cellphone while driving. The police said at the time that he had disarmed Vig and fired at him. One of the charges against Camara was for using a firearm in an attempted murder.

Camara was released Feb. 3 when new evidence led to Quebec’s office of criminal prosecutions (DPCP) staying the charges. The main evidence was highway surveillance footage that showed another man at the scene of the crime. Police Chief Sylvain Caron then apologized publicly to Camara, saying police had received DNA analysis results that eliminated  him as a suspect.

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There was a major public outcry over the detention of Camara.

“We also have a special thought for Mr. Camara,” said Montreal police spokesman David Shane. “We hope that the arrest of the real suspect in this case will allow him to close the chapter on this event, which had important consequences for him as well.”

Shane had no insight to share regarding the motive for Ngarukiye’s alleged assault on the police officer. The suspect is known to the police because of fraud charges against him in Ontario. DNA played a key role in nabbing the suspect.

“We had proof of DNA,” Shane said. “The DNA of the suspect was found on the crime scene and the DNA of the victim, agent Vig, was found on objects under control of the suspect.”

Shane wouldn’t say whether the police already had the suspect’s DNA on file.

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He also wouldn’t acknowledge whether there was any prior connection between the suspect and Vig, only saying “the suspect never received a ticket from agent Vig.”

Shane insisted they have arrested the right person this time.

“In light of all of the evidence that we’ve gathered, we’re convinced we have the right suspect,” Shane said.

Ngarukiye is alleged to have stolen a car that night — a red Hyundai Elantra. He is also alleged to have stolen another car on Jan. 25 — a black Honda CR-V. The police still have not found the weapon that was stolen from the police.

Marian Scott of the Montreal Gazette contributed to this report.

bkelly@postmedia.com

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