The shooting death Friday of a Laval police officer who was the father of two young daughters and was on the drug squad for less than two weeks has left the Quebec force in shock.

Const. Daniel Tessier, 42, was one of two officers shot during a drug raid on Montreal's South Shore. His partner, Const. Stéphane Forbes, was shot in the arm but is in stable condition.

Const. Daniel Tessier, a 17-year veteran of the force, was shot in the head Friday. He leaves behind his wife, who is also a police officer, and two daughters.
(Laval Police)

A civilian was also shot during the raid, and police arrested a man and a woman who were in the home at the time, but no charges have been laid yet in the incident.

Tessier was shot in the head during a pre-dawn raid in the suburb of Brossard, where Laval police were executing search warrants to break up what they say was a cocaine trafficking ring.

Tessier was a 17-year veteran of the force, joining the drug squad less than two weeks ago, said Laval police director Jean-Pierre Gariépy.

Gariépy said Tessier was fully capable of handling a raid, even though he was a rookie on the drug squad.

"He was in shape, and he was able to manage that situation," he said.

"We're facing a difficult profession. Sometimes when we deal with those kinds of people, it's like flipping a coin. You get lucky, or it turns out to be the other way. This morning it turned out to be the other way."

Word of the shootings spread quickly through the Laval police force and brought back painful memories, Gariépy said.

Fifteen months ago, Laval Const. Valérie Gignac, 25, was shot dead with a rifle when she responded to a routine domestic disturbance call, becoming the first Laval police officer to die on the job.

Her death left scars on the force that "haven't healed," Gariépy said.

"I would say that the healing process has not ended with Valérie, and we are already facing another death. It's quite difficult. This morning I was making a tour of some of our detachments. I would say our people are in very deep shock."

Tessier leaves behind his wife, who is also a police officer, and his two daughters, aged 10 and 12. His funeral services could be held as early as March 8.

30 officers involved

About 30 police officers from the Laval and Longueuil forces were carrying out eight search warrants in Laval and Brossard when the shooting occurred.

The raids capped an investigation that started in March 2006 when police say they discovered a cocaine trafficking ring operating in both municipalities. 

One of the search warrants brought Tessier, Forbes and 10 other Laval officers to a house on Rimouski Street in Brossard, where they entered the home just after 5 a.m. ET. Moments later, the shots rang out inside the home.

The injured officers and the shot civilian were rushed to hospital in ambulances, while police on the scene arrested the two people in the house, said provincial police spokesman François Doré.

The provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec, took over the shootings investigation because Quebec law requires an outside force to review police operations in which a civilian or officer is hurt or killed.

The investigation will "determine the sequence of events that led up to Mr. Tessier's death, and the circumstances that surrounded it," Doré said.

It's not clear how many shots were fired or where the 12 officers were located when the gunfire erupted, but ballistics tests should provide more clues, he said, while cautioning it may be some time before police have any answers about what happened.

Investigators with the provincial force's major crimes squad questioned police officers involved in the fatal raid and other witnesses in the area, SQ spokesman Marc Butz said. 

With files from the Canadian Press