A 17-year-old autistic teenager, Mamadou Bah, has been missing in Sherbrooke for five days without a phone or money. The wanted notices were issued by Sherbrooke police, but not Montreal, and the young man’s family regrets that Montrealers’ eyes are not used to finding him as soon as possible.
“We’re not looking for him in the right place! exclaimed Mouhamadou Ndoye, the young man’s father-in-law, on Tuesday morning.
Mamadou Bah, a young black man, speaks French. He has short black hair. He is thin, 1.90 meters tall and weighs 68 kilos. On the day of his disappearance, he was wearing dark gray Calvin Klein sweatpants, an African-style t-shirt with a black back and colorful patterns on the front, and black Vans sneakers.
Seen in Ahuntsic
Sherbrooke Police have issued a wanted notice. She reported that the young man was spotted at the Bromont bus station in Estrie last Thursday night and that the next day he went to his former high school, Évangeline, in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, the neighborhood where he grew up.
But the school did not alert the police or family because their officers were unaware he was wanted, Mr Ndoye said in an interview with Le Devoir on Tuesday morning.
The young man’s father-in-law learned on Monday that Mamadou had also gone to his old job on Saturday, at the Métro André-Grasset grocery store in the Ahuntsic district. He went there himself and was able to see the cameras taking pictures of the young man putting empty cans in a vending machine for money, he said. He was wearing the same clothes as on the day of his disappearance. His son-in-law was diagnosed with autism, but he doesn’t think many people would notice because he’s very articulate.
No reviews in Montreal
The man says he remains hopeful but is very concerned because the Montreal media failed to report his son-in-law’s disappearance. Sherbrooke media covered it in their reports in that region, but it no longer exists, he points out.
“It makes more sense to focus on Montreal. But nobody talks about it in Montreal. »
The Montreal police did not release anything, he said. The man says he has contacted the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) himself to get a wanted notice distributed – to no avail. He also reached out to the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) because Mamadou has a fascination with the subway, he said. But again, it failed: he was told that it was the police who had the power to publish wanted reports.
When contacted on Monday about the issue, the SPVM said it had not received a request for media coverage from Sherbrooke Police. Montreal police said they were not acting without an official request so as not to harm investigators’ efforts.
However, Sherbrooke Le Devoir Police said on Monday that they had indeed made such a request. A statement on Tuesday morning said: “We submitted the application to the SPVM through the usual channels,” said police spokesman Martin Carrier. The media department received the broadcast request, and neighborhood stations 50, 21 and 10 also received the wanted notice, he added.
No notice had been issued in Montreal as of Tuesday morning. “Time flies, it’s been almost a week,” said Mr Ndoye, feeling the urgency.
But early on Tuesday afternoon, the SPVM finally sent a wanted notice to the media. According to an SPVM spokesman, Sherbrooke Police had sent out a description of the youth to patrol officers last weekend, but no request for media coverage. This happened on Monday afternoon and the SPVM had to check with their colleagues in Estrie before the broadcast. Which finally happened to the media on Tuesday afternoon, but not on his social network accounts like Facebook.
If you have any information regarding this disappearance, please contact the Service de Police de la ville de Sherbrooke at 819 821-5555.