Dramatic turn of events: a new suspect is arrested for the triple murder in the Rivière-des-Prairies neighbourhood of Montreal, nearly three years after the events. The event, for which one man has already pleaded guilty and three others are awaiting trial, had shaken the population and triggered the Centaure strategy aimed at combating armed violence.
The suspect was already incarcerated in connection with another case at the time of his arrest Thursday by the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM). We cannot name the young man since he was a minor in August 2021, during the triple homicide.
According to our police sources, the individual is a member of a Montreal North street gang.
He appeared in youth court in Montreal on Friday morning and faces three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder with a firearm.
The event cost the lives of Jerry Willer Jean-Baptiste, known as Mackazoe, Jefferson Syla, alias Soldier, and Molière Dantes. Two other men, Jean Richard Milius and Alexandre Dunn, were injured.
According to information at the time, a long-standing rivalry between the Profit Kollektaz street gangs of Rivière-des-Prairies and the 43 of Montréal-Nord was the backdrop to the triple homicide that occurred on August 2, 2021.
Marlon Francisco Villa-Guzman, the driver involved in the violent incident, pleaded guilty in May to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He said at the time that he had no idea that his co-defendants, who are scheduled to go on trial this fall, would shoot at a group that day.
The prosecutor in the case of the young man arrested on Thursday, Mr.e Simon Robin, filed a notice of imposition of a sentence applicable to adults. It’s Me Alexandra Longueville who represented the alleged murderer during his appearance.
The proceedings will continue on July 26.