Crown: 15-year-old Meriem Boundaoui was a victim in a parking dispute when she was killed
Posted February 24, 2023 11:44 am.
Last Updated February 24, 2023 12:47 pm.
The 15-year-old who was shot in the head while sitting in a car in St-Leonard on Feb. 7, 2021, was an innocent victim in a parking dispute between two businesses, says Quebec’s Crown Prosecutor.
Both Aymane Bouadi, 27, and Salim Touaibi, 27, have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Meriem Boundaoui.
In documents filed by the Crown, obtained by the Montreal Gazette, they detail their theory that Boundaoui was killed by accident, while the shooter was aiming for someone else.
The parking dispute dates back to months before her murder. The owner of a grocery store on Jean-Talon noticed customers of a nearby Barber shop were using his parking spots.
He approached the owner of the barber shop about this and over time, it turned into a heated issue with altercations between both owners, and their family members.
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The Crown alleges on Feb. 6, 2021, the owner of the grocery store invited the owner of the barber shop to a meeting. When he arrived he was assaulted by family members of the grocery store owner.
The brother of the barber shop discovered this an retaliated by committing mischief inside the store.
There was also an altercation behind the store between the brothers of the barber shop and the son of the grocery store owner.
An hour later a relative of the barber shop began receiving threatening calls that he would be shot and the barber shop would be lit on fire.
The calls persisted the next day – the day Boundaoui was killed.
Later that day a meeting was held to try to settle the conflict but during that time friends of the barber shop owner gathered at Valdombre St., close to Jean-Talon St.
One friend was in his Volkswagen Jetta with Boundaoui sitting next to him in the passenger seat.
A Mercedes C300 pulled up and asked if he was “the guy from the barber shop” before firing bullets from into the Volkwagen, killing Boundaoui.
Police located the Mercedes abandoned on March 12, 2021, and then were able to connect it to Touaibi.
The case will be before the court on March 8, 2023.
