Quebec provincial police are investigating a burnt-out vehicle found in a northeast Montreal parking lot, which they say may be connected to the deadly shooting at a Starbucks in Laval on Wednesday.
The shooting happened at 10:30 a.m. at a commercial plaza, resulting in one death and two injuries. Authorities said they are treating the incident as an organized crime-related killing.
The victim, a man in his 40s, was organized crime figure Charalambos Theologou, known as Bobby the Greek.
On Thursday, Montreal police say they received a 911 call around 3 a.m. reporting a car on fire in the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and alerted police after discovering signs of accelerants, suggesting the fire was deliberately set.
The vehicle has since been towed for forensic analysis as investigators search for evidence.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) are leading the homicide investigation. No arrests have been made.
Shooting of organized crime figure could spark retaliation, expert says
A former Montreal police investigator warns that more violence could follow after this week’s events.
Pietro Poletti, a former lieutenant detective with the Montreal police, says street-level organized crime today is marked by easy access to guns and the lack of a single leader imposing rules.
“There’s a big void, everybody wants a piece of the pie, there’s a lot of drugs in the market and everybody wants a piece of the territory,” he said in a phone interview.
He said shootings in public places aren’t unheard of, although they’re more common in parking lots or establishments that are known to be frequented mostly by criminals. He described modern street thugs as “yahoos” with long criminal records who resort quickly to violence, and said there is likely to be retaliation for Wednesday’s shooting.
“The people who did this shooting, obviously they eliminated the leader of one clan, so they’ll go after other people to try to take back the territory,” he said. “That’s inevitable.”
Quebec’s public security minister, Ian Lafrenière, said Wednesday’s brazen daylight shooting was concerning.
“I am following the situation closely with my colleagues,” said Lafrenière, who is a former police officer.
Laval’s police chief, Pierre Brochet, described him earlier in the week as a person connected to organized crime, and parole board records show a criminal past that includes drug trafficking, weapons possession and conspiracy.
“I knew this individual by reputation,” Brochet said.
–with files from The Canadian Press