Shooting in Canada’s Montreal leaves three dead, including suspect

MONTREAL – A midday shooting in Montreal killed three people on June 22 – a police officer, a civilian and the alleged gunman – triggering rare alarm in the Canadian city.

The bloodshed occurred in a partly Jewish neighbourhood with kosher markets and restaurants, and the civilian who died has been identified as a member of Montreal’s Jewish community.

But police have declined comment on the shooter’s motive.

French-language public broadcaster Radio Canada said the shooter was connected to incel ideology – a misogynistic world view that fuelled the man responsible for one of Canada’s most deadly mass killings, a 2018 vehicle-ramming in Toronto that killed 10.

Incel means “involuntarily celibate”, and is linked to heterosexual men driven to extremism over their apparent inability to find female partners.

Montreal police chief Fady Dagher said the incident was “a tragedy, a nightmare”.

He said police received a call about an active shooting in Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges neighbourhood around 11.30am local time (11.30pm Singapore time).

Police responded and a shoot-out ensued, with the apparent assailant firing from inside a building with a long gun, Dagher told reporters at the scene.

Frank Vogas, 71, told AFP he was buying paint at a shop in the area when gunfire erupted. “I see the police storm in, come in from everywhere, and they raise their guns,” he said, explaining that officers told people in the shop to stay close to the floor.

Cote-des-Neiges resident Danny Wilk told AFP that he witnessed the violence unfold.

“I was on the street near my home when I heard one shot, then several more,” he said. “I tried to take shelter in the nearby pizzeria, and that’s when I saw the shooter, who looked ready to fire his weapon, dressed in military clothing.”

Wilk said he saw the officer dead on the ground before the shooter was taken down by police.

Dagher confirmed that one male officer, later identified as Mohamed Lamine Benredoune, was killed.

A female officer had injuries that were not life-threatening.

Dagher also confirmed that the gunman was dressed in what appeared to be military-style clothing.

‘Avoid speculation’

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was horrified by the violence.

The location of the shooting raised immediate speculation online that it was another incident of anti-Semitic violence in Canada, which has seen an enormous increase in reported crimes targeting Jews since Israel launched its operation in Gaza following the Oct 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a prominent Canadian civil society group, named the slain civilian as Michael Moshe Mizrahi, describing him as “a beloved member of Montreal’s Jewish community”.

Dagher stressed that the investigation had not yet produced any indications as to motive.

“It’s important to be very careful of rumours,” he said.

Getzy Markowitz, a rabbi who works in the area, said the shooting took place in a community with multiple Jewish institutions, including educational centres and a food bank.

“People are asking me if it’s an attack on the Jewish community. I think it would just be completely irresponsible even (to) speak to that at this point, because (all) we know (is that) it was an attack... on the police,” he said.

Quebec Premier Christine Frechette said she was “deeply shaken by the tragic events”, while urging people to avoid speculation about what transpired.

The area had initially been locked down, but officers began leaving the scene on the afternoon of June 22, and traffic started to resume. AFP