A 61 year old man with a well-filled criminal past was shot dead Saturday morning in an apartment building in the Village, in Montreal.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal received a call on Saturday around 7:50 a.m. concerning a person who appeared to be unresponsive in a dwelling on rue Sainte-Catherine Est, near rue Beaudry.
This is a rooming house located above the popular karaoke bar Le Date.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/QMI AGENCY
Once there, the police found that the victim had been hit in the upper body by a projectile. A firearm was found near him by the SPVM.
The investigators finally concluded in the afternoon that it was a murder. No arrests have yet been made in the case.
According to our information, the victim is Réjean Di Genova, 61 years old.
Taken from Rejean Digenova’s Facebook page
The Montrealer had several criminal histories, including break and enter, robbery, carrying a weapon and drug possession.
The man who had been free since 2017 proudly mentioned last month on his Facebook page that he was free for four consecutive years for the first time since he was nine years old.
This is the 11th murder to occur on SPVM territory in 2023.
MARIO BEAUREGARD/QMI AGENCY
Concern in the neighborhood
Saturday at the end of the day, curious people watched the crime scene which contrasted with the festive character of rue Sainte-Catherine, normally reserved for pedestrians.
Michel Kennedy, an employee of the Le Date bar, was however not surprised to learn that a murder had been committed very close to his place of work.
“It’s a problem case, this rooming house. […] There isn’t a week where something doesn’t happen there,” he explains.
Mr. Kennedy even moved out of the neighborhood a year ago in the face of rising violence.
“I now come to work by taxi, because it’s too dangerous,” he says.
His friend Lucien Landry sees more and more people in crisis when he walks through the area he has lived in for 15 years.
“We are crying out for help to protect the citizens who frequent the businesses. We are victims of all this, ”he says.
With Maxime Deland and QMI Agency