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The agency said Wednesday the civilian managed to seize the constable’s baton and allegedly used it to strike the officer over the head at the courthouse.

After a struggle, the constable then took out a gun and fired it, hitting the 18-year-old at least once in the head.

A woman who said she was the man’s mother wrote on Facebook that her son was stable and that the bullet hadn’t hit his brain.

“He is strong and he is fighting for his life,” she wrote late Wednesday.

On Thursday, she posted photos that showed him in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes and wearing a neck brace, his eyelids purple and swollen.

An online video shows a fight breaking out in the seating area outside a Maniwaki courtroom.

In the video, a man is seen wrestling with a special constable while someone records the scene with a cellphone. After the man is dragged into an adjoining room, a gunshot is heard and pandemonium breaks out in the small space.

Chris Lacaille of Maniwaki, identified as the man who made the video, posted later on Facebook: “(The victim) is fine. He was hit close to the eye (but) the bullet ricocheted into the neck. He is doing very well (and) will come out of this without any brain damage. All is well.”

The BEI and the Sûreté du Québec would not identify the civilian or the special constable.

tspears@postmedia.com

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With files from The Canadian Press