Montreal police are recommending extra vigilance after three Montreal teenagers were stabbed and robbed while walking down the street last week.
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The three events occurred less than three hours apart on Thursday, March 9, beginning at 7 p.m.
One of the victims, Samuel*, 16, was walking on Monkland Avenue towards the Villa-Maria subway station in the Côte-Des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-De-Grâce neighborhood when his backpack was shot at behind him in a bid to challenge him.
“Three boys [portant des cagoules] challenged me. They asked me for money and I said I had nothing. Then they took out her knife and asked me for my phone and all my belongings,” the young man told the Journal.
He asked to be identified with a fictitious name, fearing he would face the attackers again.
Initially hesitant to cooperate, Samuel said he decided to turn his personal belongings, including his cell phone and wallet, over to the thieves when they began to move “more aggressively”, including by showing off the bladed weapon at “moderately heavy”. size,” he said.
The criminals set out and a few hours later, Samuel noticed that his bank account had been emptied, which luckily only had $70 left in it. “
The same of Samuel, Angela Jamarillo, claims that her son was traumatized by the event and that he is too scared to return to the Villa Maria station, which is the closest to his home.
“Before, it was easy for him to get around on the subway,” she says. But now we have to carry him everywhere because he is very nervous. It affects the whole family.”
“Same procedure”
Also around 7 p.m., a second youth was again attacked by a group of thieves on Monkland Avenue.
“He was surrounded by five or six young people who had masks and hoodies and a knife, his father told the Journal, who also asked for his identity to be protected. There was no money in his wallet or credit card. They gave it back to him and ran off on the subway.”
“He [mon fils] When he returned home, he was completely shocked, the father continued. He was shaking. I had never seen him like that before.”
The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) confirms that it was reported to these first two incidents and also notes that a third apparently identical theft took place in the Outremont area around 9.15pm that same evening.
“It’s the same approach,” explains Jean-Pierre Brabant, spokesman for the SPVM. There are several suspects who have surrounded the victim [adolescente] and asked for personal items. Our youngster was unhurt.
Suspect arrested but released
Four minor suspects in connection with the third Outremont robbery were arrested by the SPVM that same evening. However, they were released as no charges are currently pending against them.
“The investigation is continuing” to see if the same suspects are linked to the other two events that happened earlier, Mr Brabant said.
But Angela Jamarillo was far from reassured when she learned that the suspects who assaulted her son are free as air.
“Of course, now that they’re back on the road, we’re even more stressed because they [les suspects] know the families want them charged.”
The mother wrote to the Mayor of Côte-Des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-De-Grâce, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, asking her, among other things, to install surveillance cameras around the Villa-Maria train station.
The SPVM’s Jean-Pierre Brabant recommends that teenagers be extra vigilant and “aware of their surroundings”.
“You may not show your phone, if possible put it in your pocket or coat so it won’t be seen,” he says.
“If a person is spoken to and it is a weapon, you must not defend yourself and hand over your items. We don’t want people to get hurt for equipment that can be bought back,” Mr Brabant concludes.
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