Hundreds gather in Longueuil to mark one year since police shooting of 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi

Hundreds of people gathered in Longueuil on Monday evening to mark one year since 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi was shot and killed by a police officer, as family members and supporters renewed calls for justice while waiting to learn whether criminal charges will be laid.

The vigil began at 6 p.m. outside a Longueuil police station in the city’s Saint-Hubert borough before participants marched shortly before 7 p.m. to the intersection where Rezayi was fatally shot on Sept. 21, 2025. The procession took about 20 minutes, with participants chanting “Justice for Nooran” as they made their way.

When the crowd arrived, Rezayi’s mother, Fahima Rezayi, clutching a framed photograph of her son, cried out: “Justice for my son.” The crowd then observed a minute of silence.

Many of those attending wore black clothing, while several relatives wore white T-shirts bearing a photograph of the smiling teenager alongside the words “Justice for Nooran.” Some supporters carried signs reading “Forever 15” and “Nooran means light,” while a large banner called for an end to police violence.

The gathering brought together family members, friends, classmates and supporters to mark a year since Rezayi’s death and a year spent waiting for answers about what happened that day.

His sister, Frozan Rezayi, delivered an emotional speech and struggled through tears as she described her brother as “the light of our home, of our days.”

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

She remembered a teenager who loved making people laugh and smile, and who had dreams and plans for the future.

“How has it already been a year since they took my brother’s life? And there are still no answers,” she said.

A poem was also presented on behalf of Rezayi’s friends. His mother and father attended the vigil alongside other relatives.

The central question remains whether the officer who shot Rezayi will face criminal charges.

Rezayi was killed after Longueuil police responded to a 911 call reporting a group of allegedly armed youths in a residential neighbourhood on Montreal’s South Shore.

According to surveillance video released by lawyers representing the family, Rezayi appeared to have been shot within seconds of police arriving at the scene.

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

The watchdog completed its investigation and submitted its report to Quebec prosecutors in March. Prosecutors are still reviewing the file and deciding whether charges should be laid.

For the family, the wait has become part of the grieving process.

“There are very small things that can alleviate the sadness and information is important,” family lawyer Virginie Dufresne-Lemire told Global News.

She said the family continues to seek information about the events surrounding the shooting, including video evidence and details about the police response.

“We know that there is a camera that filmed maybe part of the events,” she said. “They want to see that camera. They want to know who is this police officer, why it took so long for them to be called after, so everything.”

Speaking at the vigil, family lawyer Fernando Belton said the lack of answers has left Rezayi’s relatives living with uncertainty.

Belton told the crowd the youths had been sitting on a sidewalk with their phones when police arrived and that Rezayi was shot moments later.

“Today, it is time to say: enough,” he said. He said the shooting continues to resonate beyond the immediate family. “I think of every one of these young people who ask themselves, ‘Will I be next?’” Belton told the crowd.

He also spoke of parents fearing for their children 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 pledged that the family’s legal team would continue pursuing answers. “We’re going to fight until the end to get justice for Nooran,” he said.

The death has also sparked broader discussions about policing and accountability. Ted Rutland, a Concordia University professor whose research focuses on policing and racialized communities, said the questions raised by the shooting extend beyond the actions of a single officer.

“I think that we can see that this death wasn’t just a result of one police officer, but a whole pattern of increasing racial profiling and harassment of Arab communities in Longueuil and racialized communities in general,” he said.

In a post on X on Monday, Quebec Public Security Minister Ian Lafrenière offered his thoughts to Rezayi’s family and said he was not ruling out a public inquiry if the full circumstances of the case are not established through the ongoing administrative investigation.

Dufresne-Lemire said a public inquiry could help provide some of the answers the family has been seeking. “It’s a public institution, it’s the people that are supposed to keep you safe that did this, and then you have to fight to get information,” she said. “It makes no sense.”

The shooting has led to several parallel proceedings. 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.

The Quebec government also launched an administrative investigation into the Longueuil police service’s handling of the aftermath of the shooting.

Documents released by Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier indicated the police watchdog was notified of the shooting one hour and 36 minutes after it occurred and that Longueuil officers continued questioning witnesses at the scene. Longueuil police have maintained their actions and the delay were justified under the circumstances.

Meanwhile, Montreal police conducted a separate criminal investigation into the events that preceded 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 concluded at the place where her brother was killed, Frozan Rezayi urged supporters to keep speaking his name.

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