Triple stabbing leaves three dead in Montreal’s Plateau, including teen

Three people, including a teen, are dead after being stabbed in the Plateau-Mont-Royal Tuesday evening. It means there have been seven homicides in the last 10 days in Montreal.

Montreal police (SPVM) received a 911 call around 7 p.m. about a fight between at least 10 people in an alley on Rachel Street between Saint-Andre Street and Mentana Street.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found three young men who had been injured by a sharp object.

The three victims, aged 15, 23 and 25, were transported to hospital and their injuries were considered life-threatening.

Angélique Langevin, a classmate of the 15-year-old victim, and her mother, Geneviève Gagnon, dropped off flowers on Wednesday afternoon at the spot where the three men were killed.

Langevin, in tears, said many are affected by this.

“The school principal came to our class and told us that our classmate had died and that he was in a fight, there were a lot of people that cried,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of tough situations at school and there were a lot of people who turned their backs on me. But he was the type of guy who wanted to talk to me, who was there for me.

“He was a good guy, he was super nice,” she added.

“I was shocked when I saw this on TV this morning, and to know that it’s a young person that my daughter knows, it hurts even more,” her mother said. “We never hope to see situations like that, and violence like this is very unfortunate.”

On Wednesday morning, the SPVM had confirmed that all three victims had died.

According to SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant, these deaths are the 14th, 15th, and 16th murders to happen this year in Montreal.

Police say the three men were injured during a conflict, and the suspect or suspects fled before officers arrived on scene.

No arrests had been made so far.

Officers have confirmed that there is no link to organized crime.

“Currently, investigators and police officers are checking surveillance cameras and trying to meet witnesses to find out a little more about the circumstances surrounding this event,” said Brabant.

The investigation is being carried out by the SPVM’s major crimes unit.

SPVM major crimes unit commander Jean-Sébastien Caron held a police press conference on Wednesday about the multiple murders.

He said it was a conflict that got out of hand, and led to the death of three people.

“We’ll probably be able to tell you exactly what happened in the next few hours, maybe even a day,” he said. “It was a conflict that involved about fifteen people. We’re in the process of determining the implications of each of them.”

The city has seen 16 murders since the start of the year. More recently, a man was shot dead in the plateau on May 12. On May 14, another was stabbed to death in St-Henri, and on May 18, a possible femicide and another man killed.

“I like Montreal, I think it’s a wonderful city, this feels to me like a different city, it’s not my city,” says Denes Dreisziger.

Caron said that violence, especially homicides, will not be tolerated in Montreal.

“We’re doing everything we can to arrest people and bring them to justice. So we’re going to do the same thing with yesterday’s event. We’re going to do everything we can to reach a conclusion, which should be fairly quick given the quality of the evidence we’re going to obtain.”

-with files from La Press Canadienne