A police officer and a Jewish civilian have been killed after a gunman opened fire in a deadly ambush that unfolded mid-morning on June 22 in one of Montreal’s busiest Jewish districts.
The shooting appears not to have targeted Jews, although many community members initially worried it was antisemitic terrorism. Nevertheless, the “nightmare” event, as police have called it, has left the Jewish community reeling because of the loss of life — and because it happened in Snowdon, a community hub in Côte-des-Neiges, where many Jewish Montrealers live, shop and gather.
Media reports say the shooter was part of the “incel” community, and left behind a manifesto about how he hated women, but investigators have not confirmed this to The CJN.
The chaotic day had residents and hotel guests either in lockdown or scrambling to safety in a nearby Jewish social services agency, MADA. Wide swaths of the city were locked down as hundreds of police tried to locate other possible suspects, although, by day’s end, the chief said there was only one shooter — and he was killed.
Police have announced the slain officer is 34-year-old Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, who has been with the service since 2021. The CJN is aware of the reported identity of the murdered victim, but is working to confirm their identity with their family.
The CJN’s Quebec correspondent, Joel Ceausu, has been following developments since the first emergency alerts were issued. He knew of both of the victims — and, like so many Jewish Montrealers, he also has a personal connection to the neighbourhood where this tragedy unfolded.
Ceausu joins host Ellin Bessner on today’s special breaking-news edition of The CJN’s North Star podcast to help us understand what happened, who the victims were, and how this devastating event has affected Montreal’s Jewish community.
Related links
Read The CJN’s continuing coverage of the June 22 Montreal ambush and shootings in the Jewish neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges, at thecjn.caWatch what it was like for shoppers trapped inside the PA supermarket as Montreal police stormed through searching for suspects, on The CJN’s YouTube channel.Learn more about Montreal’s Jewish community from the latest Canadian census data, in The CJN.Transcript
Ellin Bessner: Montreal’s police chief speaking to reporters Monday afternoon confirming the details of a horrific shooting attack in a heavily Jewish neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges that left a Montreal police officer dead, a second officer wounded and recovering in hospital, the shooter also dead, and a Jewish bystander also killed in the chaotic gun battle.
Hours later, Montreal’s Jewish community is still reeling after the deadly shooting and the massive police
The violence unfolded mid morning at Decarie Blvd. and de Courtrai Ave. A place where many Jews live, shop for groceries at PA, stop for coffee at the Starbucks, eat smoked meat at Deli 770, meet friends in the local Elie Wiesel Park, and have out-of-town visitors stay at the kosher-friendly hotel the Hilton Garden, where the shooting began. The surrounding area also houses many important Jewish community organizations
Authorities have not said that the Jewish community was targeted.
But the shock is being felt throughout the community.
Police ordered residents to shelter in place while the hotel was evacuated. Authorities shut down major streets and the subway for hours. Police established a large security perimeter and conducted an extensive search in several parts of the city.
Joel Ceausu: There are people saying, ‘We are relieved that this is not what we thought it was when it first happened. It’s hard to find relief when a police officer is murdered and when one of ours is murdered. There’s no plainer way to put it.
Ellin Bessner: I’m Ellin Bessner and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Tuesday June 23 2026. Welcome to North Star, the flagship podcast of The Canadian Jewish News made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
Our Quebec correspondent, reporter Joel Ceausu, has been following developments since the first emergency alerts were issued. And like so many Jewish Montrealers, he also has a personal connection to the neighbourhood where this tragedy unfolded. and also to the victims.
Joel joins me now to help us understand what happened, what we know so far, how this devastating event has affected Montreal’s Jewish community and what to expect over the next few days.
Joel, thanks for being here.
Joel Ceausu: Hey Ellin Happy to be here.
Ellin Bessner: You have covered a lot of difficult stories in Montreal. This one hit very close to home. Can you just walk us back where you were when you first heard about the incident and what was your immediate reaction when you found out what was going on?
Joel Ceausu: Sure. Well, first of all, you pretty much summed up the vibe of what’s happening in Montreal I mean, you really nailed it in terms of it’s at least one centre of Jewish life on the island of Montreal.
So let me take you back. I was walking into a doctor’s appointment today. And I was walking into the office when I got a phone call from my son who was busy setting up a barbecue at the foot of Masada in the Judean Desert saying ‘What the F is going on in Montreal?” I messaged him back quickly and said “Come again?” and he said :We just got an alert a minute ago that something’s happening right now.”
So what we know is that early on, before noon around 11:15, 11:20, reports of shots fired in the area known as the Westbury area. Now that’s just a small sector off of the Decarie Expressway for people familiar with the area. It’s home to six towers of condos, offices, hotel, some commercial activity on the ground floor, restaurants and a very popular grocery store. There’s also a park right in the middle of the complex and called Elie Wiesel Park that was officially dedicated late September 2023. And so, this is an area that has a lot of Jewish residents, couple of kosher shops. The grocery store there has a respectively sized kosher section. It is a centre of Jewish life. Two blocks away is the JCC, the Jewish Community Council, the VAD, and a little bit a few meters closer is the MADA Community Center. There’s a Chabad. It really is a hub of Jewish life in the area. And a lot of Jewish visitors to town also flock to the hotel where there’s a lot of bar mitzvahs and weddings and lot of simchas. So the area is kind of recognizable as a Jewish area.
Now that said, when we heard the shots were fired and then within minutes police started flocking to the area, families in the park with their kids were fleeing for cover, police arrived at the scene and smashed their way into the grocery store thinking the shooter may have been in the grocery store, which he wasn’t. We found out afterwards there was a lot of confusion. There were people taking photos and videos from all the surrounding high rises.
Confusion over the number of shooters, over the number of police. Well, we do know that it was pandemonium. The Quebec government declared an emergency. The City of Montreal declared a public safety emergency.
A shelter in place notice went out to everybody in the area, which is quite a sizable area from Highway 40 to Queen Mary Road, from Côte-des-Neiges Boulevard to Macdonald, which is not far from where I am. Nobody could get in or get out. And that really affected traffic, very heavily midday near Jean-Talon-Decarie, one of the worst intersections in the country, definitely the worst in Montreal in terms of congestion.
Ellin Bessner: They shut the subway down too.
Joel Ceausu: It shut the subway down, it shut the subway line down, a lot of the institutions. Yeah, so about 20 minutes after the first report, St. Joseph’s Oratory was evacuated. Now, the Oratory on Queen Mary is known to a lot of visitors to Montreal. It’s three kilometers to the south. But at the same time, reports started coming up that police were sighted in large numbers in the Westmount area, which is above the Oratory. It’s not clear what they were or who they were looking for.
Ellin Bessner: The Oratory! Who shuts down the Oratory?
Joel Ceausu: Was there an active shooter elsewhere? they chasing somebody who left the Westbury area? We’re not sure. What we do know is that police from all over the area converged on the scene. Now, Station 26, which is near the Westbury area, as the crow flies, it’s about 300 metres away from the shooting site. But because of the CP rail line, everything everybody has to go around the long way so it could have taken cops feasibly ten minutes with the sirens on, everything to get there. They probably could have run there faster like if they passed through
Ellin Bessner: I’ve literally walked across that bridge myself many times to Decarie Square.
Joel Ceausu: Right, well, alongside the railroad track, right. So to situate it for people, if they know where the Decarie Square is alongside the Decarie Expressway, this is right across the highway. This is where the condo development and the hotel and the shooting site.
Ellin Bessner: And is it true that, we’ve seen video that there was an arrest made in Decarie Square today?
Joel Ceausu: There was an arrest made in Decarie Square, which is now called Decor Decarie. People online have been reporting it as a second shooter. There’s no confirmation of that. It’s only rumour. But police were out in force all over the area. It was hard to get in or out. The police have said, as of 3 o’clock, the police said they have no reason to believe there is a second suspect. They confirmed that the threat was neutralized, i.e. the active shooter, but still as of three o’clock there were still police present in Upper Westmount.
Now we know tragically a Montreal police officer, likely from Station 26, though there’s no solid confirmation, was shot and killed at the scene. Even more awful, his assassination, his killing was done live on video. People have been sharing that video. It’s awful.
You there are times like this when people feel that curiosity, that morbid curiosity to see and to share, but it really is quite awful to see him in his last moments. the police officer succumbed later on, but he was shot by a shooter that is also visible on camera. You see the shooter, you see the shooter in action, you see the wounding of the second officer and you see the…
what looks to be the shooting of a civilian. again, there are reports and even Quebec’s public security minister, Ian Lafraniere, a former police officer, long career in Montreal police. He’s acknowledged that there appears to be, know, it seems that there’s the image would suggest that the civilian was shot by a police officer. At the same time, far to the right of the picture that you don’t see until later in the, as the frames go by.
Ellin Bessner: It was chaos. It was chaos.
Joel Ceausu: That the active shooter with his long gun was running in that direction and shooting in that direction. So it’s not clear. What we do know is the female officer is out of danger.
Ellin Bessner: So she had surgery that was earlier today?
Joel Ceausu: She was in critical condition, but she’s stable. She’s out of danger. So here again.
Ellin Bessner: But tell me about the civilian because lots of reports. [Perhaps] you knew about this person. You may even have known them. We’re not gonna mention names because as of now we don’t know.
Joel Ceausu: News organizations approach this in a variety of ways and we’ve seen that over the decades. To be first out was once a badge of pride, a badge of honor for news organizations, but we’re a little different at the CJN. It’s important that we talk about the community and the people involved in these stories and how it affects them. And so I can say now I don’t have official confirmation of the identity.
Now until the police have confirmed otherwise, or the family has publicly confirmed otherwise, I’m not going to play that game. What I do know is that the shooting of the civilian is caught on camera, it’s clear, the question is where the bullets came from.
Ellin Bessner: But the question is though, this person is Jewish, was Jewish. And do you know anything about —
Joel Ceausu: Reportedly a man in his late 60s who’s known and loved in the community, who spends time in the community, patronizing the community, spends time at the local Chabad. And I’ve spoken with two people who know him personally quite well, and they are both devastated, absolutely devastated. And as these things happen, you know, that was, you know, I imagine the pandemonium of an active shooter scene in a dense environment like that, in a Jewish neighborhood, would claim Jewish lives. But it’s not what everybody jumped to conclude right away when we heard that there was a shooting there. Now, you know, it was not too long ago, Constable Mike Penezotto in Toronto was shot while executing a search warrant in relation to shootings of the U.S. Consulate in Toronto and synagogues, possibly.
Ellin Bessner: So everybody’s mind went there. I’m sure yours did too.
Joel Ceausu: Right. We hear about foreign actors paying people to commit violence in Western streets on behalf of whatever jihadi organization they’re working for. So right away, a lot of minds went to this. In addition, in this neighborhood, post-October 7th, there were lot of reports of anti-Semitic incidents. Mezuzzahs being knocked off a lot of doors, community patrols being stepped up.
And most recently, the social media platform Leviathan identified an individual living in the area who’s had some really awful, hateful things to share about Jews and about the current situation about anti-Semitism, about the war in Israel, in Gaza, in the Middle East. And so immediately people automatically assumed that this was a jihadi attack, one of the many ISIS plots we’ve seen foiled by the FBI or the RCMP over the last few years.
So what we know now is it was not that. Again, rumor but hasn’t been denied forcefully by the police in the last couple of hours is that the individual, the suspect who was subdued was motivated by incel ideology.
Ellin Bessner: Radio Canada is reporting that and others. Look, let’s leave that till tomorrow till we get more information. Right. So we’ll talk about that. A lot of sources are saying that there was a whole long 65 page thing. We don’t know, you’ll find out. But I want to go back to the impact and how it literally rolled out MADA, which is the social services agency. It’s like, I don’t know, a hundred steps away. What did they swing into action? Why were they involved?
Joel Ceausu: They threw open their doors and they brought everybody inside and everybody who was told to shelter or flee or were in the midst of fleeing, they just ushered them all into their facilities and they did what MADA does, it helps people in times of need in a different way, right? Because people were coming in all sorts of dress and I got to say, know, really not to be too trite about it, but I was planning to go to PA today, like
Ellin Bessner: They gave them literally shoes and things.
Joel Ceausu: It wasn’t a solid 100 % plan, but my daughter was moving into her apartment this week and was planning to fill up the fridge and I was going to meet her to hand her some tools and I figured why not? It’s near me. Let’s pop in. They have great deals. We would have been there after the horror and the tragedy, but it was part of the plan as that neighborhood is part of the plan for Jews in Montreal every day.
You know, the parking beneath the commercial strip, the grocery store makes it a very popular destination for people in the area to just pop off the highway and go do their shopping or stop at Starbucks or go to the Kosher Burger place. So it really is a hub.
Ellin Bessner: My mother was just there at PA on Monday. I’ve been there millions of times.
Joel Ceausu: I was there yesterday. So it’s a regular stop. It’s about 15-minute walk from my home. Again, that area has transformed quite a bit over the years. It’s a very ethnic district. It’s a there’s a healthy population of Jews in that new development in that condo development. So this really has resonated. Social media has gone off the charts with rumor and conjecture.
Ellin Bessner: But people were literally filming from their windows. I mean, you have so many eyes on there.
Joel Ceausu: Right. The active shooting of the police officer was captured by somebody. It seemed it appeared to be taken from a hotel window, from window in the hotel where the shooter is alleged to have begun shooting.
Ellin Bessner: Think about how many people are now traumatized because they’ve lived through this. You were living through it as a journalist and someone who knows the people in the area, but they literally are dealing with this now. So what are you hearing? You said you’ve been online a lot. What are they saying, people that saw it?
Joel Ceausu: People are very upset. People are incredulous. A lot of people are suspicious that this is not the whole story, that the police are hiding information, not to put people into panic. But as more information comes out, and for police and officials to be responsible when they do this, they roll it out when it can no longer hinder an investigation.
People are starting to accept not only the gravity of what happened, but the facts of what happened. But still everybody knows somebody who was in the area, who was around, who was there yesterday, who was planning to go this afternoon. It really is a very commonly accessed area for people not only who live there, but in the periphery as well. I have to tell you though, it really is…
I did speak with a Montreal police officer, not from the local station, who did tell me that the Montreal police are terribly saddened and aggravated and that these type of, you know, there were reports that this was a bait, this was a baited operation, that the shooter shot, you know, there are rumors that the shooter shot out the window of the hotel once, descended the hotel, crossed the street, once the police showed up, engaged in a shootout with police to satisfy whatever twisted bloodlust he may have had. these types of things have happened in Montreal and recently, but not to this degree. Absolutely not to this degree. Maybe taking a pot shot at a car or vandalism or throwing a rock or just getting their kicks. But this was really horrific scenes of a long, of an individual in camel gear.
Ellin Bessner: It was an ambush, like death by police, yeah.
Joel Ceausu: Running through like running by the Starbucks in Camel Gear with a long gun and shooting.
Ellin Bessner: It’s like the kosher Starbucks too. Mm-hmm.
Joel Ceausu: It really is something that we’re not accustomed to seeing in Montreal, But we have seen more of this. We’ve seen more horrific scenes of violence, of suggested violence in Montreal and Toronto.
Ellin Bessner: You just had a firebomb at the temple, Emmanu-el, a week ago. We were just covering that story two weeks ago. So and then didn’t you have last Friday night the police had a press conference at ten thirty on a Friday evening?
Joel Ceausu: Right, in Westmount down by Sherbrooke. Yeah, that’s right.
So yeah, Fady Dagher called an emergency, the police chief Fady Dagher, SPVM police chief, called a press conference to announce the immediate suspension at the time of 14 or 15 police officers, following serious, founded some, mostly credible allegations of some brutal systemic racism in Montreal North.
That’s, you know, north, far northeast from where we are. But it is a borough with a lot of history of conflict between residents and the police going way back decades. And some of the allegations are brutal, brutal, you know, systemic racism and abuse of, of individuals, allegedly cutting off the hair of individuals, of suspects or even of non-suspects.
Ellin Bessner: Anti-Black racism, yeah.
Joel Ceausu: And so this is the week long version of, or maybe Sedamannis Horabilis for Fady Dagher, who really is no stranger to problems. So, I mean, he’s been through the wringer. He was very emotional when speaking today. He had to compose himself several times because he was very moved. And at one point when he was asked the question,
Ellin Bessner: —my god, he could barely get a word out.
Joel Ceausu: I it was a pretty benign question about something about the investigation. He had to stiffen up and say, now I’m no longer talking as Fady Dagher. It seemed like he was sort of convincing himself. He was speaking as the police chief responsible for all the citizens of Montreal. Quickly thereafter, you know, the minister of public security, Yann Lafreniere, spoke. The minister responsible for the island of Montreal, Chantal Rouleau, spoke.
Mayor Soraya Martinez-Ferrada and Premier Christine Frichette as well. They ordered all the flags in Montreal and Quebec lowered to half mast and they extended their sympathies with the families and the communities that were affected.
Ellin Bessner: So what are we expecting for the next couple of days in terms of the Jewish community?
Joel Ceausu: In terms of the Jewish community, know, the usual organizations are going to be, you know, seeking to reassure everybody and the community service security networks are going to be making sure everything’s shored up as it has to be. In terms of the Jewish community, as well as the community at large, there are social services available for people to talk to if they want to call 811 and talk about, you know, if they’re feeling, you know, the effects of this trauma they witnessed or they experienced.
The Jewish community will roll with this. mean, obviously, this is a tragedy for the Jewish community when anybody is taken from a family and a community, more so for the direct family, the immediate family, his congregation, his loved ones, his colleagues, his friends. But there are people saying, we are relieved that this is not what we thought it was when it first happened.
It’s hard to find a relief in a moment of grace when a police officer is murdered and when one of ours is murdered. There’s no plainer way to put it. I think they will. I’ve seen these type of things happen before.
Ellin Bessner: Well, do you think people are gonna stay away from that area or think they’re gonna
Joel Ceausu: This was very, this seemed very random. A shooter from a hotel window with high rises, baiting police. This wasn’t targeted, this ostensibly wasn’t targeting Jews. It wasn’t targeting a specific individual. The first shooting, the first shots were apparently across the way into the office building, that into the floors that housed offices in between the residence and the commercial strips on the ground floor that are at Chaussée. this people will, if you hear some of the testimonies of the people speaking on the news or sharing their firsthand accounts on social media, they’re saying, thank God we’re okay. We felt good. We were in a community WhatsApp group and we were sharing information. I checked in on my kids and my neighbors.
But we can’t forget that two losses of life here, really horrific, broad daylight, and we’re still not sure why. We see how, we’re still not sure why.
Ellin Bessner: And if the beautifully said, and if the lastly, so the if the the civilian is killed there has to be an investigation, an autopsy, what have you, usually in these cases they can’t have a quick Jewish funeral.
Joel Ceausu: Of course, of course, it’s going to have to defer to that. But the Quebec government announced an immediate establishment of a crisis centre to put everybody on the same page, to cooperate, like as you said, to not work in silos, whatever anybody needs. says Quebec will not interfere. And it’s important to note, like in other police forces, whenever an officer is shot or shoots, the investigation is moved to the Bureau d’enquête indépendante. It’s an independent investigative agency. So the investigation is in the hands of another police force. While the scene is still under the control of the SPVM, the Montreal police, the investigation is going to the BEI in English. And they’re the ones that are going to be commenting going forward. And they don’t comment much.
Again, again, you asked if people are going to feel comfortable. I don’t know. probably listen. There’s a lot of people that live there and have to live there. These been lifted. People have gone home. People are in the area. There’s a lot of, you know, curious types showing up to snap pictures, to look at police tape on the ground. There’s still some cops around, of course, but the big shutdown has been lifted. That came at about, I think that was about four o’clock.
Ellin Bessner: They’re allowed back in. I everything’s been lifted.
Joel Ceausu: I got it on my phone telling me that this shelter in place alert was lifted. People can go about their business. was talking to some…
Ellin Bessner: —have to retrieve their cars from underground parking at PA. I know someone that was literally in the store. We’re gonna try to do an interview with this woman tomorrow. And they had they were locked down for hours and hours and the police and then they couldn’t get their cars out even after it was lifted.
Joel Ceausu: Yeah, there’s about 50, 20 parking spots under there. And those are the people who frequent the there’s a there’s a bakery and a cafe on the first floor as well, in addition to PA. Well, you don’t even have to validate you just have to be out within 60 minutes. And it’s this, this is that that’s the light side of it. But again, it really is eerie, know, and this is not a this is not an old crumbling, decaying, decomposing, you know, neighborhood that’s, you know, been abandoned through gentrification where you’d expect urban crime. Not at all. It’s all shiny and new and the pave-unis on the streets and the beautiful Elie Wiesel Park, the kids playing in, it’s more of a park-let, it’s like a small linear park. And there’s still a lot of building going on. Like a block away, there’s another building going up and there’s a green space being a landscape. And that’s one of the reasons why one of the first people who spoke with French media today, a resident in one of the buildings, said he thought it was something to do with the construction. They were driving foundations or something. But pretty quickly realized that there was a shooter. And I mean, within 15, 20 minutes, there must have been at least 50 cop cars on the scene. Within 40 minutes, there was an armored vehicle, one of the SBVM’s armored vehicle. There was K9 units all over the area. And all traffic was all traffic above the expressway was halted
Ellin Bessner: All right, we’ll let you go. You have a busy night and day ahead of you. And stay strong. Thank you for sharing your personal connections and you’re on the ground reporting with The CJN.
Joel Ceausu: Thank you, Ellin.
Show Notes
Credits
Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde, (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)Music: Bret Higgins
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