The two men accused of shooting Maxime Lenoir in broad daylight last month in the Rockland Center parking lot are scheduled to appear at the Montreal courthouse on Friday. According to the arrest warrant released Friday morning, those involved are Widens Point du Jour Paul and Samuel Jamahl Anthony Chand.
Posted at 11:41 am
Louis Samuel Perron The Press
Daniel Renaud LaPresse
The first accused, Mr. Point du Jour Paul, 27, is a Montreal resident, while his alleged accomplice, Mr. Chand, 33, resides in Vancouver, the warrant shows. According to the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), it was the latter who opened fire on Maxime Lenoir. He was also arrested in Vancouver on Thursday. The two men were “connected to organized crime,” the SPVM said in a statement.
The murder of Maxime Lenoir – believed to be a cocaine importer – had major repercussions in the metropolis this summer, as another murder occurred barely half an hour later at a restaurant on Montreal’s rue Saint-Denis. However, the two attacks were unrelated.
It took the Serious Crimes Investigators of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) just a month to arrest the two suspects. As far as we know, at least one camera captured the scene when the murder was committed. The shooter, on the right between two cars, opens fire on the victim. The scene was captured by a camera. The suspects’ vehicle, a dark-colored Mazda 6, was parked near Maxime Lenoir.
After the crime, the suspects left their vehicle on Canora Road in Mont-Royal, about a kilometer from Center Rockland. They tried unsuccessfully to light it. The next day, police discovered the car and, according to our sources, confiscated the murder weapon and clothing. The investigators therefore viewed and analyzed a large number of images from surveillance cameras in order to find the suspects as quickly as possible.
According to some reports, guilt after an aborted import into the United States could be one of the hypotheses behind the murder of Maxime Lenoir, which has all semblance of a reckoning perpetrated amid organized crime.
“Montreal’s sense of security was shattered on August 23 when two gun homicides, half an hour apart, occurred in broad daylight. Today, thanks to the rigorous work of investigators and specialist teams, we are pleased to confirm the arrests related to the first incident at the Rockland Centre. As for the murder in Rue Saint-Denis, I can confirm that the police investigation is proceeding and our investigators are stepping up their investigation efforts,” said SPVM interim director Sophie Roy.