Longueuil police have arrested one man in what they call the biggest weapons seizure in recent memory, all as the result of a fender bender.
Police are trying to determine how and why St-Hubert man Hugo Bernard, 43, managed to gather over 50 firearms inside his home, including restricted assault rifles.
The incident began last week on the South Shore, when Bernard left the scene of a collision before the report was completed.
Several days later, Longueuil police went to Bernard's house to finish that report, and as a precaution checked the firearms registry beforehand.
That showed Bernard had many legally registered handguns, and so during their visit, police searched his home in order to make sure they were properly secured and present.
To their surprise, they found dozens of weapons, including:
- 31 handguns
- 14 long guns
- 11 prohibited weapons
- three AR-15 rifles
- a sizeable amount of ammunition
- illegally modified magazines
All the weapons and ammunition were seized by police.
Capt. Nancy Colagiacomo of Longueuil police said the long-arms seized are prohibited firearms.
"They're not on the market, they're prohibited. They're on the black market I would say. No we do not know where they came from. We will look into that definitely because it preoccupies us as well," she said.
Colagiacomo said at this point police do not know if the rifles have been modified to become fully automatic weapons.
"We're not experts, so unless we do the actual tests on the firearms to see if they're automatic or semi-automatic we are not allowed to confirm if they are automatic or not," said Capt. Colagiacomo.
They arrested Bernard and he was arraigned on 19 weapons-related charges.
His bail hearing for Wednesday was postponed. He is now due in court on Friday, Dec. 16.
Bernard has several previous convictions for drug and weapons-related offences going back to the 1990s.
A sticker on his door said he protects his home with an AR-15, though neighbour Melanie Belanger said Bernard mostly kept to himself.
“He was very quiet and not aggressive at all,” said Belanger.
Proponents of gun control say the amount of weapons seized shows there's something wrong with the law if a man with a criminal record can still buy restricted guns in large quantities.
“We've seen an erosion of gun control over the last ten years right across the country,” said Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control. “There's case after case of people who shouldn't have access to guns having not one, but many guns.”
