Trial of Denis Leblanc for double murder | “I’m going to shoot the women,” the accused allegedly said

Pills and a rifle are on the table. Denis Leblanc is visibly disturbed and refuses to give up his weapon. His words are worrying. “If there are women passing in the alley, I will shoot the women,” he says. Barely a few minutes later, the 63-year-old man shot his two sisters, who arrived from the alley.

This is the disturbing scene told to the jury by Denis Poirier, a long-time acquaintance of the accused, on the fourth day of the trial. Denis Leblanc is accused of the premeditated murders of his sisters Diane and Sylvie Leblanc, as well as attempted murder of his neighbor Lina Petrilli and two police officers. According to the Crown’s theory, Denis Leblanc wanted to cause “carnage” that day by killing police officers.

“I wanted to take the rifle away from him, because for me, he was going to cause misfortune,” Denis Poirier told the jury. The witness has known Denis Leblanc for decades. He was his neighbor for a long time and knew the accused’s parents. Moreover, when the accused was disturbed, Denis Poirier used to ask his wife to call the accused’s mother.

This morning in October 2020, Denis Poirier receives a call from Denis Leblanc. “I found him quite disturbed,” he testifies. He then asks his wife to call Leblanc’s mother. When he went to the accused’s house, Denis Poirier saw a bottle of gin, around ten jars of pills and, above all, a rifle on the table. Denis Leblanc makes worrying remarks.

Denis Poirier asks the accused to give him his firearm so that he can have it, but Denis Leblanc refuses. He also refuses to give her her pills. The witness then realizes that if the accused says he is ready to shoot the police, “he can [le] shoot too.” Even if he is “not afraid of anyone in life”, Denis Poirier was “a little” afraid at that moment.

But why didn’t he warn the police?, asked the defense lawyer M^e Alexandre Garel. “It’s his mother’s [de le faire]I am a neighbor, I am not his father,” the witness defended himself.

“He spoke of his two sisters as his two loves,” testified Denis Poirier, who did not suspect that his friend could kill his two sisters in this way.

Moreover, when the accused’s two sisters arrived through the alley, Denis Poirier left the scene. He had no doubt then that the worst would happen a few seconds later. According to another witness, Denis Leblanc kicked one of his sisters, then shot her. The two bodies were found behind the accused’s building.

M^e Pierre-Olivier Bolduc and M^e Katerine Brabant represents the public prosecutor.