MONTREAL – Old Montreal’s genteel business district experienced a different way of settling accounts Thursday when two men were killed and two others wounded in a gangland-style shooting in broad daylight.
Confused tourists, bewildered bankers and office workers watched in horror as emergency medical crews bundled victims into ambulances and police cordoned off the crime scene between St. François Xavier and St. Jean Sts.
Masonry workers said the suspects were gone before they looked up and noticed a wig – dark-brown with dreadlocks – discarded at the eastern corner of the Inter-Continental Hotel.
Police are searching for two suspects who opened fire in Flaw Nego, an upscale clothing shop on St. Jacques St. W. shortly before 1:45 p.m., fleeing to a waiting getway car on St. Antoine St., leaving a trail of blood and abandoned disguises in their wake.
Flaw Nego is owned by Joseph Ducarme, who is believed to be a street gang leader associated with the Reds. Ducarme was facing assault charges and is alleged to have intimidated business owners in a bid to exert influence over drug territory.
Ducarme survived yesterday’s attack. His bodyguard, Peter Christopoulos, did not.
Montreal police constable Olivier Lapointe said the obvious priority now is figuring out the motive and connection between the suspects and the victims.
“We are looking at the people who own the store, who are hanging around that store and we are looking at our files to see if some crimes were committed here in the past,” he said.
“We have some pieces of the puzzle so far but we are trying to find the link to see why it happened there. One thing for sure, it didn’t happen on the street. The people injured were not passersby.”
But Lapointe said there were witnesses, both inside and outside the shop, who began meeting with detectives yesterday
“We have to go all our files and information about the victims and about the store to see if those people are related to crime and if that information could explain the crime that happened here this afternoon….This is information that is of great interest for us.”
When officers arrived, three people were injured. “Sadly, one death was confirmed on the scene and two people were sent to hospital,” said Constable Olivier Lapointe of the Montreal police. Minutes later, police learned a fourth victim had managed to escape and drive himself to a different hospital.
“He was injured very seriously, but still conscious and able to drive. We think that he was in the store. He was the fourth victim but he ran away, he didn’t wait for the ambulance or the police.” Lapointe said the other two victims sustained serious injuries but were in stable condition.
The police operation caused traffic gridlock and havoc for motorists whose vehicles were trapped inside the cordoned off area.
Mary Veinberg, who lives just outside St. Sauveur, said she had just parked her car on St. Jacques St. W. when she noticed a police cruiser edging up beside her.
There were no sirens blaring, so Veinberg and a friend went on with the job of finding money for the meter and unloading her 11-month-old puppy, a giant Caucausian mountain dog named Alsan the King.
It was only as she turned to leave that Veinberg notice more police cars and ambulances pulling up and a police officer cordoning the area off with crime scene tape. “I wasn’t sure I’d locked my car, but they wouldn’t let me go back to check, insisting I use the automatic locking device to double-check.”
Veinberg, who still had no idea what was going on, left to take her dog for a walk at the Old Port. But on her return, she was told the car was one of a handful within crime perimeter that would have to stay put – probably overnight – until investigators had completed their work.
“What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to stay with a dog like this?It’s too bad this happened, but it has nothing to do with me. Life is life,” said Veinberg. “I told them I live in St. Sauveur and the officer said it wouldn’t make a difference to me if you lived in France.”
But other spectators took the shooting and its aftermath in stride.
“There’s been a shooting,” one man said as they watched emergency workers lifted one of the victims into an ambulance.
“Ah, it happens,” said his friend. “In my neighbourhood, it happens.”
Late in the day, a lawyer stopped by to grill a reporter about what she’d learned so far. He scoffed at claims by police that Ducarme may not have been present when the shooting happened.”I would find that hard to believe.”
pcurran@thegazette.canwest.com
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