Multiple shots that upset a calm morning, a dead man in his car and a suspect who rushes off: this is the disturbing and unexpected scene described by witnesses present on the day of the murder of Frantz Louis, an important figure in the middle criminal. A young woman who was a few meters from the victim at the time of the incident also witnessed the murder.
“At first I didn’t believe it. Then when I moved forward, I saw the bullet holes in the [car] window,” the woman in her mid-20s recounted Tuesday morning at the trial of Emanuell Hunte Roberts and Andrew Thomas Labrèche at the courthouse in Montreal court.
They are charged with the first degree murder of Frantz Louis, described by the Crown as a “significant figure” in crime in Montreal.
According to the prosecution’s theory, Emanuell Hunte Roberts fired on the victim, while his accomplice Andrew Thomas Labrèche was driving the getaway vehicle.
Frantz Louis was shot in his car in a residential area of Villeray on November 19, 2020 in the morning. The suit alleges the shooter exited a vehicle driven by his accomplice, walked across the street, then fired six bullets at Frantz Louis, who was sitting in his car.
The young woman who witnessed the scene was then driving near the intersection of Fabre and Villeray streets, where the murder occurred. She was driving home when she saw someone who looked like the suspect. She immediately slowed down so as not to hit him with her vehicle. “He stopped and I heard gunshots. »
“It was very, very fast,” the young woman continued.
The shooter reportedly fired “five or six times” before fleeing.
The woman in her mid-twenties described a suspect as “young, quick and smart. He was holding a small gun in his hands, she recalled.
She then parked further from the scene, in shock.
Two other witnesses described a similar scene.
One of them detailed his morning disturbed by a succession of very loud metallic noises. This man then walked to a window to look outside. “I saw a person in front of me running very fast. He then wrote down the license plate number of a car that was leaving the scene at high speed, he said.
Another resident of the area claimed to have heard five very rapid shots.
“I then saw a black car accelerate away,” the witness summed up.
The trial is scheduled for three weeks before Judge Alexandre Boucher. Me Matthew Shadley and Me Philippe Knerr are defending Andrew Thomas Labrèche, while Me Morgane Laloum and Me Mathieu Rondeau-Poissant are defending Emanuell Hunte Roberts.