A Canadian police officer was stabbed to death Monday while trying to arrest a suspect, who was fatally shot during the incident.
Sûreté du Québec Police Sgt. Maureen Breau and another officer went to a Louiseville residence at about 8:30 p.m. to arrest a suspect for threats, CBC News reports. While he was being told his rights, the 35-year-old suspect "grabbed a nearby knife" and fatally stabbed Breau, according to the Calgary Herald.
Two other officers responded to the scene as backup, and they fatally shot the suspect, who was not identified. The officer who had been with Breau was injured during the incident, but he's expected to recover.
Breau had been with the police for 20 years. She had been assigned to the regional municipality of Maskinongé.
“It is with immense sadness that I learned of the death of Sgt. Breau,” Sûreté du Québec Director Johanne Beausoleil said in a statement to the agency. “Such an ordeal reminds us of the dangers of the profession of police officers in the face of extreme situations such as that faced by Sgt. Breau, her police colleagues and the emergency communications staff who supported them during this operation.
According to the Herald, the suspect had a history mental health issues. He had been declared not criminally responsible in multiple criminal cases going back as far as 2013.
