Montreal | Thirty minutes, two murders

Two men shot dead thirty minutes apart. In broad daylight. In public places very frequented by Montrealers. The outbreak of violence by firearms does not seem to fade in the metropolis and revives the concerns of residents.

Tuesday afternoon. Tourists from the southwest of France stop at the Rockland shopping center for dinner. Impossible to leave the place once the meal is over, they note with amazement. A man was killed a few meters from their vehicle.

“Fortunately, we weren’t in the car yet,” explains Olivia Duthilleul.

They were due to return their rental van Tuesday afternoon and fly out Wednesday. The police confirmed to them that they would not have access to their vehicle before midnight.

A man in his forties was shot at around 12:55 p.m. in the parking lot of the shopping center, located on Rockland Road, near Sloane Avenue, in Mount Royal.

A security perimeter, which runs along Sloane Avenue, in Mont-Royal, prevented customers from leaving the premises with their vehicle. The wait could stretch until Wednesday morning, explained a police officer on the spot.

The 44-year-old man, injured by gunshot wounds, succumbed to his injuries, sources confirmed to The Press. This is Maxime Lenoir, an individual linked to bikers, according to our sources.

“This is the first time I’ve thought of leaving the neighborhood for somewhere safer,” said Rafsan Junaid, resident of Parc-Extension since 1994.

The shooting took place a few blocks from his apartment. The father is worried to see such events occur in his neighborhood more frequently.

“It’s crazy, it’s crazy! laments Steven Nasra, a resident of Mount Royal. The shooting took place right in front of his home, on the other side of the fence that separates his street from the Rockland Center parking lot. “It’s worrying,” said Mr. Nasra. “There is only a fence that separates us. My son could have been hit,” he said. His girlfriend heard the shots from the street while walking her dog. “She was in all her states,” told us Steven Nasra, who has just installed surveillance cameras in his yard.

When the shopping center closed, several cars were still in the security perimeter.

About 30 minutes later, another man was shot on rue Saint-Denis, south of rue Ontario, in the Latin Quarter. Diego Fiorita, 50, was seated at the Napoli restaurant during the attack. According to our information, this second victim also succumbed to his injuries.

“He was a regular. He came often, he ate at the same table every time, ”said the owner of the pizzeria, Vincenzo Montuori. This violent murder which occurred in broad daylight in his establishment left him ” speechless “, he explained, visibly worried.

Debts and drugs

The two men killed in broad daylight gravitated around the criminal milieu.

According to our information, a debt caused by a drug importation which aborted in the United States would be one of the hypotheses behind the murder of Maxime Lenoir, the first victim.

In June 2020, his residence in Terrebonne had been raided by investigators from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) during the dismantling in Estrie of one of the largest clandestine laboratories manufacturing methamphetamines ever discovered in the province.

However, Mr. Lenoir had not been arrested. He has no criminal history in Quebec, according to our research.

The deceased, however, would have had links with a clan of the Montreal mafia and with certain members of the Hells Angels of the Montreal section. The police suspected him of being involved in cocaine importation and fraud.

Mr. Lenoir would also have had established contacts in South America and was considered by the police to be an independent trafficker. In March 2017, a small plane stuffed with 130 kg of cocaine, piloted by two Quebecers, had landed in Ohio, in the United States.

A month later, an investigator from the Organized Crime Division of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) told the court that one of the suspects behind this importation – brothers considered by the police to be part of the crime organized in the Near Middle East (PMO) – had met Maxime Lenoir in Laval.

The witness added that Mr. Lenoir had already been arrested in the past for having transported cocaine and that he would have managed a route between the countries of the South and Canada.

Diego Fiorita, the second victim, had meanwhile survived an attempted murder in January 2020 in the Ahuntsic district, in Montreal, according to our information. The event was linked to a history of loan sharking and debts.

A population to reassure

The Montreal police will be “hard at work in the affected areas to reassure citizens,” assured the office of the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, on Tuesday. As is often the case during violent events, the SPVM will have security brigades in the Centre-Sud and Mount Royal areas to answer questions from the public. “All the necessary resources are in place to shed light on these crimes,” promised Mr.^me Plant in a tweet.

Within the entourage of M.^me Plante, we reiterate that the mayor intends to make public safety a central issue in the provincial campaign this fall. The City wants to see the leaders of the main political parties position themselves “very loud and clear” on the issue of weapons and their circulation.

“Today’s violent events are unacceptable. I went to meet the merchants on rue Saint-Denis to assure them that the SPVM is hard at work conducting the investigation and finding the criminals involved,” added Ms.^me Plante on his Facebook page, praising the “excellent work” of Montreal police officers.

From Quebec, the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, also spoke with the mayor in the afternoon.

For the official opposition, however, Montreal will have to change its approach. “If the administration of [Valérie Plante] really took the issue of public safety seriously, she would give the SPVM the necessary resources […]. This administration must demonstrate that its priority is the tranquility of citizens,” said public security critic Abdelhaq Sari. The latter also had the municipal council adopt a motion on Tuesday forcing the City to adopt a social network brigade at the SPVM “as soon as possible”, in order to monitor the purchase and sale of weapons online.

The whole thing comes as Monday, in a letter sent to the mayor, the Fraternity of police officers and policewomen of Montreal (FPPM) had argued that there were 72 fewer police officers at the SPVM than in November 2021, when Mr.^me Plante had pledged to hire 250 additional police officers within a year. The mayor responded by saying that there had been 229 police hires since November 2021.