Saint-Léonard: an 18-year-old injured by bullets
The SPVM, in intervention in Saint-Léonard.
An 18-year-old young man was injured in a shooting last night around 11:10 p.m. near Lacordaire Boulevard, in the south of Saint-Léonard. The victim is out of danger, says the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
Just after shots were fired at the intersection of Bonpart and Valdombre streets, calls were made to 911. Once they arrived on the scene, the SPVM did not find a victim, but spotted bullet holes on a parked car. Then, while carrying out a search, the police found an injured young man in a parking lot further away. He was taken to hospital.
At this stage of the investigation, the SPVM believes that the facts took place while the young man was walking and that he was shot at from a moving vehicle. He then took refuge in the parking lot of a shopping center, at the intersection of boulevard Lacordaire and rue Bélanger.
The young victim is now considered out of danger. Two security perimeters were set up by the SPVM: the first at the scene of the shots and the second, where the man was found.
The neighborhood has been marked by other violent events in recent years, including the murder of the young Meriem Boundaoui, 15, collateral victim of a shooting. This crime also took place in the area near Garibaldi Park, like the events of last night.
Gun violence escalated – without any link between the events being mentioned by the SPVM – in the last two weeks in Saint-Léonard and Anjou. On March 19, a young man was killed in Anjou, on the edge of Saint-Léonard, and shots were fired at a Leonardo building on March 21.
Since March 19, 11 incidents of shootings and attempted homicides have occurred, specifies the SPVM. A war between rival gangs is reportedly underway in the Saint-Léonard and Anjou sectors. Among citizens, as in public policy, crime prevention among youth is a major concern in the borough of Saint-Léonard.
