More than 200 people gathered at François-Perrault Park in the Saint-Michel sector on Saturday. Steps away from where 16-year-old Thomas Trudel met with his friends last Sunday, before being shot and killed on his way home.
Tears rolled down the cheeks of the teenager’s teachers and classmates. The Thomas Memorial Gathering, organized by the Saint-Michel Youth Forum, was intended to show community support for Thomas’s family and friends.
Thomas Trudel was assassinated last Sunday, at the corner of rue Villeray and 20e Avenue. He was shot as he walked home, after meeting friends at the park. The teenager was hit by a gun in the upper body, following a verbal exchange with an individual. The death of Thomas was declared on the spot by the police officers.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) still does not report an arrest in this case.
The teenager’s murder created a shockwave in the political class. The mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, and went to meditate at the scene of the tragedy, just like the premier of Quebec, François Legault.
Mr. Legault called on Ottawa to do more in gun control. Valérie Plante instead promised Tuesday, during a press conference alongside the director of the SPVM, Sylvain Caron, to “continue to stand together, with community organizations, the police and the City, so that this type of tragedy does not happen again ”.
This is the 31e murder to have occurred in Montreal this year. Less than a month earlier, a 16 year old teenager, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, was assassinated in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.