A 26-year-old remorseful after serving as a driver for a shooting that occurred in broad daylight in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons in Brossard last year was sentenced to six years in prison.
Cris Ouellette pleaded guilty last April to charges of accessory to the facts of an attempted murder and a firearm discharge.
On February 7, 2022, he had received a text message “for a job on the South Shore” the next day, we learn in the joint summary of the facts read at the Longueuil courthouse.
When the time came, Ouellette borrowed the vehicle of an acquaintance, and then picked up the two other accused, Abdallah Bekri and Jad Wihby, at a Montreal metro station.
The three men then headed to the Tim Hortons restaurant located on boulevard de Rome, in Brossard.
Around 3:50 p.m., one of them got out of the vehicle driven by Ouellette and headed for that of Younes Guerfi, which was parked.
The 23-year-old, who was in the passenger seat, was hit in the head by two projectiles. In all, eight shots were fired in the direction of his car, according to the restaurant’s surveillance cameras and the expertise made on the vehicle.
The suspect, who was not identified during the guilty plea, quickly returned to Ouellette’s Mazda 3. The three men stormed off the scene.
Pursuit on the highway
A friend of the victim, driving a Hyundai Santa Fe, then began to chase the defendants’ car.
Moments later, emergency services received a call about gunshots heard on Route 132, near La Prairie.
The Santa Fe SUV’s windshield was hit by a projectile, but no one was injured.
The Mazda 3 then stopped in the freeway service lane. The three occupants “ran out to flee into the industrial district,” said Crown prosecutor M.e Virginie Leblond, during the guilty plea.
The police found the three suspects in Candiac only 15 minutes later. A 9mm pistol was located nearby.
During his interrogation at the police station the night of the crime, Ouellette confessed everything, even if he had not reached an agreement with the authorities.
This “spontaneous collaboration, in this kind of case, is unusual”, insisted on underlining his lawyer, Mr.e Eddy Menard.
Courtesy picture
The evidence in the file confirmed that Ouellette knew neither the intentions of the other accused nor the victim.
The other two defendants in this case are still awaiting trial.
Victim marked for life
After the attempted murder, the victim ended up in intensive care for a month. However, the medical teams were unable to remove one of the projectiles that had hit his brain.
Since then, the youngster has been struggling with significant problems with orientation, short-term memory and endurance to mental effort.
“We are still working on improving Younes’ state of health and hope that he can get his life back together,” the victim’s parents said in a letter read to the court.
– With Valerie Gonthier