Gun crime down 30 per cent, but Montreal police say it's too soon to call it a success

Violent crime involving firearms is down nearly 30 per cent compared to this time last year, according to the chief of the Montreal police service (SPVM), who says it's still too soon to say whether or not their strategy to curb armed violence is paying off.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Fady Dagher said from Jan. 1 to May 31, 2023, officers have made 120 arrests in connection with events involving guns and seized 367 firearms -- mostly handguns and semi-automatic weapons -- which is 107 more guns seized this time last year. 

In the same five-month period, there were 40 incidents where firearms were discharged, compared to 58 in the same period in 2022.

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So far this year, police recorded 16 attempted murders where a firearm was used, which is down from 20 this time last year. Dagher also highlighted the fact that there have been six arrests related to three homicides in the first five months of the year, which is half the number of killings recorded around this time in 2022.

"This is really impressive police work and my hat's off to all our investigators," Dagher told reporters.

The police force said in recent weeks it has mobilized sworn and civilian personnel into teams called "Collectives" who work in a more centralized way to target and prevent armed violence.

"We had a unit for prevention, we had a unit for drugs, a unit for guns. Now, we're taking people from each of these units and bringing them to the same table and really giving the mic to intelligence officers to tell us who are the individuals who have committed acts and are at risk of committing them again, who are those who are victimized and are at risk to taking revenge and then looking at them with different angles…and trying to figure out which is the best action to prevent any gunfire from happening," said Insp. David Shane, who heads the SPVM's communications branch.

Shane said these new teams — and a massive raid last April involving 175 officers from other jurisdictions that resulted in eight arrests — have helped the SPVM bring the numbers down. The inspector said the majority of armed violence on Montreal's streets is committed by a small number of criminals, so the April sweep was a significant win for investigators.

But with a nearly 30 per cent drop in armed violence so far this year, the police chief warned that it's not the time to celebrate.

"Please be careful with numbers. We don't know what's going to happen in the next days, next weeks. So, let's not be too happy about it," Dagher said.

"We are encouraged by the numbers but I will say when we cross the whole summer, into September, October, then we'll talk. If in October, November, the numbers are still the same, maybe we'll be able to talk about success."

When asked for the profile of criminals committing most of the gun-related crime, Dagher said the average age is between 16 and 30 years old, adding that he's particularly troubled by how young some offenders are.

"Yeah, I'm absolutely worried about it," he said.

"We can work on the short-term, arrest the ones who have the guns on them, but we definitely, definitely have to focus also at the same time on the younger [people] — eight, 10, 12 years old — to do some preventive action on some schools, with partners, community groups on the field to make sure that those kids do not jump into violence after."

• Listen on CJAD 800 Radio: Crime stats may have improved, but Montreal remains awash in guns.

FIGHTING ORGANIZED CRIME

In the past few weeks, Montreal has seen an uptick in gunfire related to organized crime, including the June 5 killing of Mafia boss Francesco Del Balso. The 53-year-old was gunned down outside of the Monster Gym in the Montreal suburb of Dorval. The victim was a senior member of the Rizzuto organized crime family who later clashed with the organization's leader.

Del Balso was suspected by police of being behind the March 15 attempted murder of Leonardo Rizzuto, the son of late reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto. Leonardo was shot in the leg while driving on a Laval highway and survived. 

One month later, Claudia Iacono was shot to death at the wheel of her car outside a salon she owned in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. While Dagher initially said he believed the 39-year-old woman's death was linked to organized crime, the head of the police's major crime unit, Cmdr. Jean-Sébastien Caron, declined to say whether or not the Mafia was involved and said last week the exact motive was not yet known.

Dagher didn't share many details about how the police are responding to organized crime, telling reporters there will be more to say after the summer.

"In the next months, maybe in the fall, you're going to see some arrests happening in organized crime," he said, "but I cannot go into details."