'We will work day and night to find out what happened:' Montreal Mayor Plante responds to teen's shooting death

MONTREAL -

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and police chief Sylvain Caron responded after the shooting that took the life of a 16-year-old boy on Sunday.

"Our heart is with them," said Plante. "Their loss is unbearable, and we're going to do everything to find out who did that."

Thomas Trudel died after being shot in the upper body in Montreal's Saint-Michel neighbourhood.

The shooting took place at 9 p.m. at the intersection of Villeray St. and 20th Ave. in the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough. Trudel was found unconscious and pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics.

Plante and Caron spoke in the same borough Trudel was shot in, which includes three schools in close proximity. 

"This is where it happened, this cold murder, if I could say," said Plante. "We're here to show our support and to say that we will work day and night to find out what happened, and to assure that we have safe communities."

Montreal police called the event a homicide, though the alleged attacker's motives remain unclear. 

Plante said the Montreal police (SPVM) are doing work to seize around 500 guns and address the violence, but the city needs more from the federal government.

"Of course there are more needs, and ultimately it's about who will prohibit those guns and the federal has that capacity," said Plante, who said her administration is working with community groups partnering with the SPVM to address the city's gun violence.

Plante said what Montreal is seeing is similar to the gun violence witnessed in Toronto and Vancouver.

"It's hard for me to say where it ends, but what I can assure you is -- though it might be frustrating for us because we're doing all the grassroots work -- we will not stop," she said.

"We will do what we have to do."