A Montrealer witnessed, helplessly, a scene in October 2020 during which his neighbor coldly shot his two sisters in just a few seconds with a rifle, acquired illegally like his entire arsenal of weapons.
“I see a woman from behind. At one point, Mr. Leblanc kicked him in the stomach. […] Then he comes out with a rifle and bang! He shoots. She falls down the steps,” explained Michel Boucher, his throat sometimes tight with emotion.
He was enjoying his Saturday morning drinking coffee when he saw the horrible scene on October 3, 2020.
Courtesy of the court
A few seconds later, his neighbor Denis Leblanc turned around and fired a second shot from his rifle, according to his testimony. Through a cedar hedge near the alley, Mr. Boucher saw the body of another woman fall to the ground, causing a heavy sound that marked him.
Denis Leblanc is currently undergoing his jury trial for the premeditated murders of his sisters Diane, 61, and Sylvie, 56, as well as for three attempted murders.
A rifle abandoned at the crime scene.
Photo filed in court
Filmed by his neighbor
Still through the door of his home, Mr. Boucher then observed his neighbor “quietly” climb the steps of the building and head, with his weapon in hand, to his neighbor’s house.
“My wife was running around the kitchen. I said to myself: ‘Tabarnak, he’s not going to shoot Lina too,’” Michel Boucher told the jury.
On Wednesday, Lina Petrilli told the jury in detail how she narrowly escaped from her home while Leblanc broke her door with the butt of his gun to enter.
After hearing gunshots, Karine Larouche, who also lives in the neighborhood, filmed a man dressed in black, cigarette in mouth, reloading his rifle then breaking a window with his weapon.
The event created a commotion in the neighborhood, several neighbors called 911 at the same time, to the point where the line was sometimes engaged. The police arrived quickly and subdued the suspect after an exchange of gunfire at the front of the building.
Courtesy of the court
In another world
Earlier in the day, Leblanc told his neighbor that he was “for carnage in the alley.”
“He told me that if women or police entered the alley, he was going to shoot them. […] In my opinion, he was in another world completely. That morning, things were not going well,” recalled Jean-Denis Poirier.
The victim Sylvie Leblanc.
Moreover, his two sisters had come to visit him at home to help him after receiving a phone call from their mother.
The 63-year-old had also sent a text message to his nephew Samuel Lambert which read: “I’m in tabarnak.”
“I thought I’d call him back at the end of my day [de travail] around 3 a.m., but it was already too late,” said Diane Leblanc’s son in a very brief testimony.
The victim Diane Leblanc.
Photo taken from the website Lajeunesse Funeral Home – Fortin – Cenac
Rifles, long weapons, hunting bows and ammunition in appalling quantities: the police found a veritable arsenal in the accused’s apartment on Ontario Street.
However, Denis Leblanc has never had a license to possess and acquire firearms. He never even applied for one, according to an affidavit filed in court.