” I am speechless. The head of the Police Department of the City of Montreal (SPVM), Sylvain Caron, still cannot explain the tragic death of Thomas Trudel, a 16-year-old teenager, in the Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc borough. Extension Sunday evening.
“It’s an unacceptable situation […] It’s one event too many, again. It is really necessary that all the actors of the community are mobilized, he explained Tuesday during a press conference, adding that he wishes to find the culprits as quickly as possible.
“I ask people who have the slightest information to send them to 911 or Infocrime Montreal,” he also claimed, saying he wanted to advance the investigation.
Thomas Trudel, 16, was returning home Sunday evening after an outing to the park when he was shot dead a stone’s throw from his house in Saint-Michel. The reasons remain unknown and no arrests were reported, two days after the tragedy. An individual reportedly shot in his direction after a brief verbal exchange; the teenager was then shot in the upper body. There was no exchange of beatings or attempted theft between the suspect and the victim. It is a witness of the scene who called 911. The teenager was not known to the police. It was the 31e murder to occur in Montreal this year.
In order not to interfere with the work of the investigators, the director of the SPVM has remained very vague on the information collected by them until now. “The investigation is going very well. Investigators are hard at work. It’s progressing, but it may take time. All the information sent to us is verified, ”he limited himself to saying.
The SPVM is currently analyzing surveillance cameras in the area. Two urban security cameras are in the neighborhood, a first at the intersection of the 47e rue and 25e avenue and a second in François-Perrault park, near the municipal library.
Last summer, Quebec’s Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, launched Operation Centaure, a provincial strategy to fight gun violence. Since the start of the year, 567 guns have been seized since the start of the year on the territory of the SPVM.
“We have to go even further,” Mr. Caron said on this subject. We have to work with young people. Why are we here today, in 2021, with young people who get their weapons at 16? There is a particular phenomenon, so we have to work at the source, with young people. ”
“It’s hard to understand,” says Plante.
For her part, the mayoress of Montreal Valérie Plante promised Tuesday to continue to “do everything possible, as the SPVM has done since the tragedy on Sunday night, to find the culprit (s)”. “We will continue to stand together with community organizations, the police and the City, so that this type of tragedy does not happen again,” she said.
Visibly shaken by the events, Mme Plante said he wanted to send all his energy and sympathies to the family, friends and relatives of Thomas Trudel, but also “to the whole community” which is “completely devastated” by this crime.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Mayor Valérie Plante and SPVM director Sylvain Caron place flowers where Thomas Trudel was shot.
“To know that there is a young man who was coldly shot, it’s hard to imagine, it’s hard to understand. […] I know he was 16. It’s too small. It does not make sense. It is a moment which is of course difficult for all of us, especially for the people who knew him well, ”she said in front of the cameras, without hiding her emotions.
This is not how we are in Montreal. We do not want this gratuitous violence, all these incidents involving firearms. We want safe living environments where children can go to school safely and have fun with their friends without risk.
Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal
Despite everything, the head of Projet Montréal was reassuring, saying that the resources deployed in recent months, since the upsurge in the shootings in Montreal, “are bearing fruit”. “We will continue on this momentum,” she assured, promising to do more to secure neighborhoods.
During the election campaign, his party promised to inject the sum of 110 million over four years to fight armed violence and ensure the safety of Montrealers.