A former gang leader was arrested Sunday in connection with the shooting that occurred in Estérel, in the Laurentians, last Friday, before being finally released. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) is now investigating the possibility that the victim in this story injured himself with his own handgun.
Posted at 10:25 a.m.
Updated at 6:49 p.m.
According to information obtained by The PressValeriy Tarasenko, a businessman who has been the subject of complaints of fraud and who was allegedly associated with a young woman of Russian origin who infiltrated the entourage of former President of the United States Donald Trump , last year, is the one who would have summoned last Friday in the parking lot of the Estérel Resort hotel the man arrested at the end of the week.
The latter, Richard Goodridge, 53, presumed president of a group of “inclusive” bikers and former gang leader, was formerly associated with the kingpin Ducarme Joseph.
An argument between the two men would then have broken out during which Tarasenko would have drawn his weapon. A bullet was then fired and injured him.
Valeriy Tarasenko was found on the spot, shot and wounded, according to our sources. He underwent hip surgery after being admitted to hospital and there were no fears for his life.
Goodridge was apprehended by investigators from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and members of the Tactical Intervention Group (GTI) on the night of Saturday to Sunday at his residence in the Chomedey sector, in Laval.
Following his interrogation by the police, a file was submitted to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, the SQ reported on Sunday evening.
“Analysis of the man’s version has not allowed charges to be laid at this time,” it was then clarified, adding that he was released with a promise to appear at a later date.
If Goodridge was suspected of having taken part in an attempted murder of Valeriy Tarasenko, he will ultimately not be accused, a priori.
The SQ is still looking for other suspects in this case.
Filed for a long time
Richard Goodridge also made headlines last year when The Press revealed that he was the leader of a new biker group, the Moors, who wanted to be more inclusive. It is not known if this group still exists.
During the 1990s, Goodridge would have been part of the Scorpions, a clique that gravitated around the Rockers, a school club of the Hells Angels that has now disappeared.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Richard Goodridge in 2014
According to some reports, he was close to Dany Kane, a member of the Rockers who became a mole for the police in the Spring 2001 investigation that led to the dismantling of this club-school and the Hells Angels Nomad.
In 1999, Goodridge was observed as a bodyguard in a motorcade in which was the warrior leader of the Hells Angels, Maurice Boucher, who died a few weeks ago.
In the mid-2000s, Goodridge founded, with the late kingpin Ducarme Joseph, the street gang 67 in Montreal. The two men then fell out, becoming sworn enemies. After Joseph’s departure in 2005, the 67 became the Loyalties, led by Goodridge.
Four attempted murders
During the 1990s and 2000s, Richard Goodridge was the victim of at least four attempted murders, including one in Toronto in which a projectile severed his finger.
Although he is well known to the police, Richard Goodridge has little criminal record.
He was pulled over from a car with a gun in it in Toronto in 2004.
In Quebec, he was found guilty of two charges of possession of a weapon and theft of a credit card. He was acquitted or benefited from a stay of proceedings in several other cases.
In 2014, an immigration commissioner ordered Goodridge deported to his home country of Guyana for serious criminality, but he returned two years later, presumably because he challenged his deportation and obtained his citizenship, information that the authorities have never confirmed.
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