Montreal police are not confirming reports that a man killed in the East End early Friday morning was a convicted cocaine dealer named Vitolino Petraroia.
Police rushed to the scene of a building alarm at 2 a.m. where they came across the victim in a pickup truck on Louis H. Lafontaine Blvd. near Larrey St. in Anjou.
"When they approached the vehicle they saw a man the age of 56 who was wounded he was transported to the hospital nearby where later on he was pronounced dead," Montreal police representative Jean-Pierre Brabant told CTV Montreal Friday.
They called paramedics and emergency crews tried to revive the man while he was taken to hospital, but he died of his injuries with the confirmation coming shortly before 6:30 a.m.
The major crimes unit of the Montreal police force has been on the scene and is trying to piece together exactly what happened.
Police will have to determine whether there was any surveillance footage that captured anything, but by noon they had not had any success.
There are no suspects at this time and the motive is still not known.
Petraroia, who ran a cafe after suffering injury at his construction job, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking on October 19, 2011 after being arrested two years earlier.
A judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison after noting that Petraoia had only one other prior criminal conviction, from about 30 years before and that he had obeyed his conditions during the two years prior to the sentencing.
Const. Anie Lemieux said this is the 26th homicide of the year in Montreal.
Witnesses are being asked to call Info Crime at 514-393-1133.
