On Monday, a Montreal police officer was killed in a shootout. For almost three hours, residents were advised to shelter in place as authorities searched for a suspect.
Police reported that one gunman was killed at the scene. However, residents were urged to remain indoors while police investigated the possibility of a second suspect. Eventually, authorities confirmed there was only one suspect involved. Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher stated, ‘The immediate threat to the public is no longer present. Shelter-in-place is no longer required.’
The incident occurred in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood, near a high-rise with commercial units housing a grocery store and a restaurant. Chief Dagher explained that officers responded to reports of a firearm visible from a hotel window. Upon arrival, officers came under fire, leading to a gunfight. One officer was killed, another wounded, and a civilian was also injured.
‘Today, one of ours has fallen in the line of duty,’ Chief Dagher announced at a press conference. It’s been 24 years since a police officer was last killed in Montreal.
The province of Quebec issued an emergency alert at 12:30 p.m., advising people to shelter away from windows and secure their doors due to an armed suspect.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada expressed condolences via social media, stating, ‘My deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the police officer who died in the line of duty.’
Mordy Aisenstark, a manager at a nearby pizza restaurant, heard gunshots around 11:30 a.m. He gathered employees and evacuated through the back of the store. Later, he saw a person in camouflage, apparently the shooter, lying dead next to a firearm. Law enforcement then directed restaurant employees to shelter in a bathroom.
Ian Lafrenière, Quebec’s minister of domestic security, stated that all available policing resources were allocated to the investigation. He remarked, ‘For now, we don’t really know what the motive of this individual was.’
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