“Lie on the floor.” This sentence, which a police officer shouted shortly after 7 p.m. in Hall 4 of the cinema, was still echoing in Juliette Laplante-Morin’s head on Sunday morning. “We were very scared, it was very stressful,” says Le Droit, the 21-year-old young woman who was there with her partner to watch the horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s”.
“We had just arrived and the lights had just gone out when the police came in,” Juliette explains. When the policeman shouted, there was a deep silence. Everyone was hidden behind their benches. Everyone was scared. We didn’t know what was going on at all. With everything we heard, given what was happening in the United States, we were really very afraid.”
Lieutenant Éric Simard of the SPVG states that several patrol officers went to Cinema 9 at around 7:10 p.m. after receiving a call about an armed man inside the establishment.
“According to witnesses, there was initially a verbal argument between two small groups of young people, and in order to intimidate the others, one of the participants raised his sweater to show a weapon,” he explains. Upon arrival, officers ensured that everyone remained in their room and went to the room where the gunman was located. He was arrested and arrested.”
Lieutenant Simard states that it was not a firearm but a shotgun that looked like a handgun. “It is not a crime to own an air pistol, but it is against municipal regulations to have one in a public place,” he explains. The individual would not have pointed his weapon at anyone.”
Six people between the ages of 13 and 16 were arrested. One person was officially arrested for drug possession. The investigation is ongoing.
Juliette Laplante-Morin claims to have left the restaurant with her partner as soon as they could. The cinema management agreed to refund tickets to people who preferred to leave the cinema. “We were very stressed the whole evening, we had a lot of trouble falling asleep,” she said. We are not close to returning to the cinema.”