Three men in their twenties were shot and killed in downtown Montreal on Tuesday evening. One died and the other two were seriously injured.
The events occurred in front of the Bell Center, at the corner of rue de la Montagne and rue Saint-Antoine Ouest, in the borough of Ville-Marie, shortly before 8 p.m.
Alerted by a 911 call, the police did not find any victims on the spot when they arrived, but finally located them almost a kilometer away, in front of the Georges-Vanier metro station.
According to witnesses met by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), a moving vehicle fired on the victims’ vehicle. The latter would have continued their journey before stopping on rue Saint-Antoine Ouest, near rue Georges-Vanier.
One of the men succumbed to his injuries at the scene, while the second was transported to a hospital in critical condition.
A little later, the police located at the corner of Saint-Antoine Ouest and Saint-Martin streets a third victim, another man in his twenties, who was injured in the lower body. He was also transported to a hospital, but the SPVM could not immediately confirm whether or not this third victim was in the vehicle that was targeted in front of the Bell Center.
At the start of the day on Wednesday, the Montreal police announced that the two victims who had been transported to the hospital were in a condition considered stable.
The SPVM erected a large security perimeter on Tuesday evening, which was still in place on Wednesday morning. Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest has been closed between Rue Peel and Rue Georges-Vanier.
The Georges-Vanier metro station was also closed on Tuesday evening, according to the Société de transport de Montréal, but metro service was back to normal on Wednesday morning.
Major crime investigators and SPVM forensic identification technicians are conducting the investigation and no arrests have been made.
Since the victims had not been met by the police on Wednesday morning, no hypothesis could be raised concerning the reasons for this attack.