Published at 1:29 am. Updated at 5:00 am.
A child who kills his parents, a father who kills his children, a woman who murders her sister, a man who kills his partner: murders within the family marked the year 2023 for crimes against the person, investigators of the Sûreté du Québec, who were very busy again this year.
La Presse recently met with Western Region leaders Lieutenant Jessie Houle and Sergeant Mathieu Boulianne to take stock of the year.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Lieutenant Jessie Houle, head of the Crimes Against Persons Unit of the Western Region of the Sûreté du Québec, and his deputy, Sergeant Mathieu Boulianne
As of December 20, 48 murder files had been opened throughout the area covered by SQ investigators. That's slightly less than last year's 54, but significantly more than the average for the previous four years (from 2018 to 2021), which was 41.
Victims (53 for 48 events)
- Men: 30
- Women: 15
- Minors: 8
Of these 48 cases, 18 were intra-family murders, i.e. more than a third.
For the SQ, femicide is the murder of a woman by her partner in a marital context. There have been fewer this year: six compared to nine in 2022 and 2021. Three of those femicides occurred in northern Quebec.
In contrast, there were seven cases of murder within a family and four cases of murder of children by their parents.
Among these cases of the murder of children by their parents, in which a total of nine people, children and teenagers, died, we remember the tragedy that occurred on March 15 in Saint-Frédéric in Beauce, where a man with His family was on board a van and intentionally drove into a truck, killing two of their children, ages 4 and 13.
Background of the crimes
- Within the family or within marriage: 18
- Conflict: 12
- Billing / Organized Crime: 6
- Sexual/free: 2
- Other or undetermined: 10
Let us also highlight the case of this father who killed his three-year-old twins at Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in Lanaudière on August 26, and this three-year-old boy who died after being fired by a gun belonging to a member of his family on November 6th in Bois-des-Filion.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESS ARCHIVE
Police officers were stationed at the scene in Bois-des-Fil where a three-year-old boy died
“Our main job is to work for families and make sure they can grieve. I know it sounds like a cliché, but that’s what we’re here for and that’s what we want,” said Lieutenant Houle.
Woolley's movements were spied on
There were fewer gun homicides this year: 13 compared to 18 last year, a 27% decrease.
Means used
- Bladed weapon: 15
- Firearm: 13
- Physical Strength: 9
- Vehicle: 3
- Blunt object: 1
- Fire 1
As of December 20, six of these 13 files were related to organized crime, compared to ten in 2022.
Among these six murders, we highlight the murders of Tinel Timu, a businessman and real estate developer killed in Laval on April 20, and of gang leader Gregory Woolley, killed in November in the parking lot of a CLSC in Saint-Jean-sur- Richelieu was shot on the 17th.
Woolley was viewed by police as a major player in organized crime in Montreal and an armed wing of the Sicilian Mafia clan.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Gregory Woolley, arrested by a Sûreté du Québec police officer in May 2022
It appears his killers placed a GPS receiver under his Lamborghini SUV, a practice often used by organized crime hitmen.
The Land Rover vehicle that the killer used and set ablaze in southwest Montreal has been declared stolen, according to our information.
The investigators do not yet have a hypothesis to explain this crime, but are sparing no effort to catch the perpetrators.
We are very active in a case like Woolley's. We know that this is important because of the current situation in the metropolitan area or in Quebec, where Michel Guérin was killed. We are in contact with the Quebec police and several other police forces.
Lieutenant Jessie Houle
“These are crimes committed in front of people, whether in the car park of a CLSC or in a peaceful residential area. We are not safe from a stray bullet fired by a suspect that misses and kills the neighbor who was clearing snow from his driveway. It is always a concern for us,” adds Sergeant Mathieu Boulianne.
resolution rate
- Resolved files: 36
- Unresolved files: 12
- Success rate: 75%
“With the phenomenon of armed violence that currently exists, we are putting pressure on our players. I tell myself that if we arrest them and send them to prison for at least 25 years, that will be 25 years in which they are not a danger to society,” adds his boss Jessie Houle.
A major event
The two police officers emphasize that every file is important to the investigators. On the other hand, some this year have been more notable, notably the murders of three people mowed down on March 13 in Amqui in Bas-Saint-Laurent by a man driving a ramming truck.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
It was the Sûreté du Québec that led the investigation after a man driving a ram truck killed three people in Amqui.
“It was a huge scene, a kilometer long. We assigned at least thirty investigators to the case and stayed on site for about a week. We also had to manage the overall impact on the population. This is not the type of event that occurs often. Multiple victims [il y a eu aussi des blessés] in a small community. “The damage control measures were just as important as the investigation itself,” describes Lieutenant Houle.
“In the Montreal region, people may expect more to see events like this while there was a big impact there. The deputy was there. People told us that they never thought something like this could happen to them,” adds Mathieu Boulianne.
A growing phenomenon
The year was also marked by several net operations; This is what we call intervening with a barricaded and armed individual who poses a threat to others or themselves.
As of December 20, Crimes against the Person investigators had intervened in 22 fillet operations and in two cases encountered firearm projectiles fired by individuals in Richmond and Cacouna without being hit, and even encountered one on another occasion in Saguenay Crossbow bolts.
On the same day, the SQ intervened in 101 network surveillance operations – situations that were defused before the intervention of the Tactical Intervention Group was necessary – compared to 67 in the entire previous year.
“And the month of December is not over yet. This is a good increase compared to last year. The number was thought to have increased in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that's not all and it continues. More than 100 guards, that is a lot of events, often serious,” concludes Lieutenant Houle.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, extension 4918, write to [email protected] or write to La Presse's mailing address.