"We're lucky there were no casualties"

Experts deplore the poor response of the Montreal police to the violent shooting in a crowded restaurant on Tuesday night, which miraculously did not kill.

"Publicly, they should go out and say that is unacceptable," says Paul Laurier, former investigator of the Sûrete du Quebec. [With the published video-shock], they should be on all the stands this weekend to say that it does not pass. "

Tuesday night, three shooters with little regard for the innocent people sitting in the Resto-Cafe SB, in the Saint-Leonard district, fired more than a dozen times in the direction of a man. According to our information, this is an individual linked to a street gang sector.

For the criminologist Maria Mourani, the trio of suspects performed a "very amateurish" job, and it is a "miracle" that no one has been reached as a collateral victim.

"We are lucky that there have been no victims, said Ms. Mourani, who does not see a contract performance. It seems to me rather a settling of accounts, of people who know each other. Usually, they will not shoot everywhere through the windows. They will rather be very close to the target, at close range. "

She gives as examples of "real contracts" the shootings that occurred in May in public places and targeted criminals: in Laval, where the Mafia Salvatore Scoppa had been killed, and in the Quartier DIX30 of Brossard, where the victim was Éric -Francis De Souza.

"Laval's answer was perfect. They had reacted strongly by saying that for them, it is zero tolerance for settling accounts in public, "said Maria Mourani.

"The best response is to send the message that criminals are going to be under surveillance and that they are better off being quiet […] because if you let them go, it can open the door. replicas and a loss of control, "she adds.

Paul Laurier recalls that at the time of the biker war, where the young Daniel Desrochers had lost his life in a bomb attack, the police replica was immediate with the formation of a specialized squad.

"The pressure started to rise, we showed that there was no forgiveness for that. Today, the new generation no longer has a code of honor. And it was clearly low-level "hitmen", he lamented.