Repentigny woman, 23, shot through floor by downstairs neighbour while she lay in bed
Posted October 21, 2024 12:23 pm.
Last Updated October 21, 2024 5:22 pm.
A young woman in Repentigny, just outside Montreal, is recovering in hospital after being shot by her downstairs neighbour – two floors below.
Angélique Croteau, 23, was injured Friday around 11:30 p.m. when a bullet struck her in the pelvis while she lay in bed, according to the Service de police de la Ville de Repentigny (SPVR).
The projectile was from a 12-guage shotgun, the woman’s father Stéphane Croteau told CityNews.
“It’s just one bullet that went and lodged itself in my daughter’s pelvis. It went through two floors, went through her mattress, and went into her pelvis,” he said.
“She said, “I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot,’ before it hung up.”
Angélique managed to crawl to the door and scream for help in the hallway of the building, police said. That’s when the building’s janitor came to help.
In an online fundraiser, Stéphane says Angélique — who will be turning 24 on Thursday — sustained a fractured pelvis and perforated intestines, and that she spent six hours in the operating room at Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur.
“When the morphine no longer works, she’s in a crisis from the pain.”
Photos and videos sent to CityNews by Stéphane appear to show a bullet-sized hole in the blood-stained floor, as well as a blood-stained mattress with a bullet hole through the top.
Stéphane says he’s still in disbelief over the situation.
“What could be more normal than being in your room, in your bed, in your house or in your apartment? We should never worry about someone shooting a weapon,” he said.
“It’s unreal because it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“What happened is not normal,” the father added. “It must be documented, it must be seen, it must be known, it must be understood, to make people who have firearms aware.”
Police say a man on the first floor of the apartment building – who may have been impaired – was “carelessly using a hunting weapon” in his apartment when he “accidentally fired a shot through the ceiling.”
Officers arrived to find the suspect in his vehicle, an SPVR spokesperson says, at which point he was arrested.
Marcel Potvin, 65, is facing charges of intentionally discharging a firearm in the direction of a place knowing that a person was there; criminal negligence causing bodily harm; negligently storing his 12-gauge shotgun; possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; and driving his vehicle while impaired. He remains in custody and is due back in court Wednesday.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Stéphane said. “He could have avoided my daughter. But no, he hit her. She could have been killed. But in her misfortune, she was lucky, and we’re going to be there for her.
“I have faith in justice, and I hope it will be served.”
–With files from Pamela Pagano
