Shots were fired Saturday evening at a residence in Plateau-Mont-Royal where the parents of Jean-Philippe Célestin live, a Montreal gang leader whose several relatives suffered reprisals recently, including his younger brother who was murdered in mid-February.
The Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) indicates that it intervened at the corner of Henri-Julien Avenue and Laurier Street after receiving an emergency call around 7:10 p.m.
On site, the police spotted “a projectile impact” on the door of a residence. However, checks did not make it possible to locate any victims on the scene or in neighboring hospitals.
A security perimeter has been set up on Henri-Julien Avenue between Laurier and Boucher streets, while investigators must go to the scene to try to clarify the circumstances surrounding this event.
According to our information, the targeted residence is the home of the parents of Jean-Philippe Célestin, a major player in Montreal organized crime involved in drug trafficking in downtown Montreal. The latter was also there when the police arrived on Saturday evening.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jean-Philippe Célestin, left, during the exhibition of Gregory Woolley’s body at the Loreto Funeral Complex, in Montreal, last fall
This new event occurs less than 48 hours after the murder of another man linked to Jean-Philippe Célestin. Jessy Furtado-Bénard, 32, an individual also known to the police, was found dead in a nude dancers’ bar in Terrebonne following a bloody fight which occurred there during the night of Thursday to Friday.
Another 25-year-old man, seriously injured, was then found in the parking lot.
In mid-February, Célestin’s younger brother, Brandon Jean, 28, was murdered after a family event, near Bellechasse and Saint-Denis streets, not far from where the shots were fired Saturday evening .
A former associate of Gregory Woolley
According to our information, Jean-Philippe Célestin, former right-hand man of gang leader Gregory Woolley, was seen this week wearing a Marauders jacket in a Montreal bar, by the SPVM’s Éclipse squad, which specializes in surveillance of bars and gathering intelligence on organized crime.
Created towards the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, the Marauders are a school club of the Hells Angels and would mainly have links with the Hells Angels of the Montreal section, according to court testimony from the bikers’ expert of the Sûreté du Québec Alain Belleau.
Some of their members allegedly carried out surveillance during the funeral of Brandon Jean Célestin, celebrated on March 5 in a church in Plateau Mont-Royal.
However, the police do not yet officially consider Jean-Philippe Célestin as a member of the Marauders.
There has never been a black person in the Hells Angels since their arrival in Quebec in 1977, but there have been some in their subordinate clubs, notably Gregory Woolley – killed last November -, former member of the Montreal Rockers, late school club of the Hells Angels, very active during the biker war.
Jean-Philippe Célestin was Gregory Woolley’s right-hand man until the latter’s assassination in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on November 17.