Vehicle targeted by arson attack at Dorval home of Montreal lawyer
Posted October 17, 2024 9:55 am.
Last Updated October 17, 2024 6:46 pm.
Montreal police (SPVM) are investigating after a vehicle was targeted by an arson attack in Dorval overnight.
SPVM received calls to 911 around 3 a.m. about a vehicle on fire in the driveway of a home on Whitehead Terrace near Lakeshore Drive.
“According to the initial information, a suspect used accelerant to set the car on fire and fled on foot before the police arrived,” explained SPVM spokesperson Véronique Dubuc.
Police also found a can of gasoline near the vehicle, added Dubuc.
According to City of Montreal documents, the owner of the residential property is Émile Benamor, whose downtown Montreal law office was riddled with bullets on Oct. 9.
Days before that on Oct. 4, another three-storey building he owns on Notre-Dame Street E was set on fire. Two men were charged with second-degree murder and arson after the fire killed a mother and daughter from France.
Neighbour Mylène Legault says her family witnessed the moments after the vehicle was torched.
“My oldest son woke up with that explosion,” she said. “He heard a big [boom] and he woke me up just to witness that the car was on fire.”
“We called the firemen and they came quite fast,” Legault said. “Police came and they asked us for our witness [testimony] and what we had seen but we never saw Benamor.”
CityNews contacted Benamor’s lawyer for comment, but have not heard back.
#WATCH: “The car is considered a total loss,” says SPVM spokesperson Véronique Dubuc, after a vehicle was targeted by an arson attack in Dorval overnight. It happened in front of the home of a Montreal lawyer.
— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) October 17, 2024
READ: https://t.co/GPvPr2pOVi pic.twitter.com/L7dmTzNSvn
Firefighters managed to control the fire before the flames spread to the residence, but the vehicle is a total loss.
“There’s been damage to a nearby car and also to the property. We’re talking about minor damage,” Dubuc added.
There were no reported injuries. A security perimeter was set up to allow investigators to analyze the scene.
Investigators met with witnesses like Legault and will be using surveillance footage to help identify any suspects.
Police wouldn’t confirm if the latest arson is linked to the other incidents at Benamor’s Montreal buildings.
The two men charged in the Oct. 4 event also face a charge of arson causing bodily harm in connection to another man, and recklessly endangering life by damaging a property by fire or explosion.
The Oct. 4 fire was the second deadly blaze in Old Montreal in less than two years, after seven people were killed in a March 2023 fire in a building that housed short-term rentals. That building was also owned by Benamor.
Quebec ordered a public inquiry into both fatal fires.
#WATCH: A vehicle was targeted by arson at the Dorval home of a Montreal lawyer that also owns the two fire-stricken Old Montreal buildings. His law office was also riddled with bullets last week.
— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) October 17, 2024
READ: https://t.co/GPvPr2ph5K pic.twitter.com/JzGnqi0hBm
Legault says she’s been worried about the safety of her neighbourhood.
“In March 2023, we were really surprised when you heard about the news and then lately with the past two weeks with everything that was going on, we were surprised.” she said. “I was starting to get concerned with the security.”
“Hopefully he wouldn’t be targeted here in Dorval but obviously what happened happened,” Legault added. “Our mothers’ instincts are always there.”
Legault was told that police would be in the area following the arson.
“I’m kind of relieved that security will be here more often,” she said.
–With files from The Canadian Press
