A 22-year-old young man suspected of having participated in a resounding attempted murder by firearm more than two years ago in eastern Montreal was arrested several thousand kilometers from the metropolis.
It’s September 1, 2021. It’s 4:15 p.m. and the sun is shining. In the Rivière-des-Prairies district, many people are walking in the streets, including several young people returning from school.
Suddenly, gunshots are fired in a burst towards a young man who is sitting in front of a house, at the intersection of 55th Avenue and 3rd Street.
By some miracle, the victim managed to take refuge in the residence and escape the hail of bullets.
In total, around twenty shots were fired during the attempted murder, which occurred in the middle of the street and in broad daylight.
A few months earlier, a few hundred meters away, another shooting that broke out during the day left three people dead and two injured.
After missing their target, the suspects fled by car, but were quickly involved in a road accident.
They then fled on foot, but were found and then arrested by the police about an hour later. The suspects, Etssin Exavier, Gerry Alexis Marc and Jeffrey Fort, aged 19, 22 and 23 respectively, are accused of attempted murder, among other things.
At least two of them openly identify as members of a Montreal North street gang with red allegiance.
A fourth individual, who managed to escape police during this event, was arrested more than two years later while hiding in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Chad Daniel Vatyl, 22, was repatriated Thursday to Montreal by investigators and then appeared on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy, discharging a firearm and getting into a vehicle at inside which was a prohibited firearm.