The stabbing attack on a 14-year-old teenager this Friday in the parking lot of Anjou high school disturbs many Montrealers, who see an increase in violence in their neighborhood.
“It’s coming closer and closer, and it looks like it’s out of control,” said Mathieu Ouellet, a father who lives opposite the crime scene.
Photo Martin Alarie
Police were scrutinizing the area where a teenager was stabbed this Friday evening, at Anjou high school, at the corner of Chénier and de l’Aréna streets.
This time, the police were called to intervene regarding the attack on a teenager who was allegedly surrounded by several individuals, then stabbed at the end of class.
“It gives me chills just thinking about it,” testified Laurie Pronovost, met in front of the arena just outside the security perimeter.
The suspects had had time to leave the scene before officers arrived. For the moment, we do not know their identity and there is nothing to link them to the secondary school. The investigation is continuing.
As for the teenager, who was known to the police, he was quickly transported to the CHU Sainte-Justine, where he is being treated for an upper body injury.
We do not fear for his life, according to the spokesperson for the Police Department of the City of Montreal Mariane Allaire Morin.
Neil Mancini, a neighbor of the school, was not entirely surprised by the news of the attack near his home.
He evokes the “attitude” of the students, who can be threatening towards him during his daily walks.
And like many residents of the area, the man recalls the attack on another 14-year-old teenager, stabbed several times in a park in the borough, last May.
Same neighborhood again
At least three episodes of gunfire have also frightened the people of Anjou in the past month, including one in the courtyard of an elementary school located less than two kilometers away on Monday evening. A school window was even hit by a bullet and had to be replaced.
Faced with this multiplication of violent incidents, the authorities arrested in June four suspects aged 15 to 20 as part of an investigation targeting Block 6, a criminal street gang in Anjou.
Many residents hope more will be done to keep their children safe and the neighborhood quiet.
– With QMI Agency