“We are now 99 percent certain that we have a suspect who committed both crimes,” said Chief Insp. Marie-Claude Dandenault, of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). Sources tell Radio-Canada they believe the two men, who were shot in the municipalities of Saint-Laurent and Ahunstic-Cartierville, were targeted at random. The events began when police were called to the municipality of Saint-Laurent after reports of shots fired. When they arrived at Deguire Street and Jules-Poitras Boulevard shortly before 9:45 p.m., they found a man, 64, on the ground with gunshot wounds to his upper body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim was known to the police. Two police sources confirmed to Radio-Canada that the 64-year-old victim is André Lemieux, father of professional boxer David Lemieux. The boxer’s manager also confirmed the identity. WATCHES | The chief inspector says police are doing everything they can “to get to the bottom of this”:
Montreal police are looking into recent shootings
SPVM Chief Inspector Marie-Claude Dandenault gives an update on the police response after two shootings on Tuesday night. Less than an hour later, police received reports of shots fired again, this time in Ahunstic-Cartierville, about two kilometers away. They found a man, 48, with gunshot wounds to his upper body on Meilleur Street near Sauvé West. He was also pronounced dead at the scene. Sources have confirmed that the victim is Mohamed Salah Belhaj.
Police are working to determine a motive
Montreal police are investigating both incidents and have not made any arrests so far. “We’re looking everywhere … no stone is left unturned,” Dandenault said. He said no motive has been determined, but police are not ruling out the scoring phenomenon – a practice of eliminating opposing gang members or innocent people at random to score points with one’s own gang. “It could be the scoring, but usually in a scoring we’ll have someone who will maybe challenge [the killing]. We will see some things come out on social media. In this case we haven’t seen it, but we can’t rule it out,” Dandenault said. According to the SPVM, with these two latest deaths, there have been 17 homicides in the city this year. In an interview with CBC News, Alan DeSousa, the long-time mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, said this kind of violence is rarely seen in the borough. “This appears to be an isolated case, certainly not an accident, and perhaps related to a larger problem that exists in the greater Montreal area caused in part by the proliferation of firearms,” he said. DeSousa said the township will look into beefing up patrols in the area. In a tweet, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante called the two recent murders heinous. On Thursday, politicians from all three levels of government are set to announce more funding for organizations fighting gun and gang violence in Quebec
