Montreal police said an alleged shooter in a neighborhood known for its large Jewish population had been killed following a confrontation that resulted in the deaths of one police officer and one civilian.
A second police officer, who was female, was injured and is in a “critical state,” according to police.
When Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher was asked at a press conference on Monday afternoon whether he could confirm the identity of the civilian victim and who had shot him, he responded, “I don’t have the information yet.”
However, Moshe Blech, an Israeli who has been living in Montreal for the past two years and is a volunteer for the ZAKA volunteer emergency response service, said the civilian victim was a member of the Jewish community.
“The deceased was known and beloved, a man who prayed with us at synagogue,” ZAKA quoted Blech, who is part of ZAKA’s North American team, as saying in a statement. “We join the family in its sorrow and are awaiting the results of the investigation which will make clear the circumstances of the incident.”
He said as soon as it was possible, ZAKA would enter the area to recover the remains of the victim and prepare for burial. The statement did not name the victim.
Blech was among the many members of the Jewish community who had to shelter in place on the street where the attack took place during the incident.
Blech told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he was outside his house with his 8-year-old daughter when the shooting started.
Another resident, Yitzhak Rosenblum, a member of the Chevra Kadisha volunteer burial society, told JR that he was working at his office “when I heard a bunch of cops flying by and I heard some gunshots.”
Dagher told reporters, “It’s a very very sad day. It’s a nightmare, but we have to be solid.” He continued, “We have to be solid for our lady police officer who survived, and we all behind her.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote in a post on X Monday that he was “horrified to learn that a police officer and a civilian have been killed and others injured in a shooting in Montréal today.”
“My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, the first responders, and the entire community of Côte‑des‑Neiges,” Carney wrote. “My gratitude is with our courageous police officers whose heroic dedication protects our communities.”
Côte-des-Neiges was the scene of postwar Jewish settlement as Jewish families ascending from the working to the middle class moved west from the area of St. Laurent Boulevard. The area, with treelined streets studded with duplexes and low-rise apartment buildings, had a friendly neighborhood ambience and lacked the anti-Jewish restrictions some of the wealthier enclaves maintained at the time.
There are a number of Jewish schools and synagogues in the area, including the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, the oldest congregation in the country, established in 1768 and which moved to the neighborhood in 1947. The neighborhood is now the site of a large Chabad community and a number of Jewish restaurants and delis.
The neighborhood has been targeted by gunfire in recent years, including incidents in 2023 and 2024 where shots were fired at Orthodox schools.
This is a developing story.
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