Reacting on Saturday to the Friday evening gunfire incident outside Collège Montmorency which sent up to four people to hospital, Mayor Stéphane Boyer said he is asking the provincial government for additional financial support to combat the rising tide of armed violence.
“It’s not the first time that issues of public security have been raised over the past year, whether in Laval or Montreal or elsewhere,” he told journalists after speaking with Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel.
Boyer said Laval wants Quebec to provide the city with additional funding comparable to what the City of Montreal received several weeks ago for the same purpose.
“It is our hope to be able to receive the same financial support so that we can be certain that our police have all the necessary tools in hand to stop these waves of criminality,” he said.
In the past year, the City of Laval added $1.2 million to amounts already budgeted for police services in order to deal with the rising wave of gun violence.
The situation worsened in the three years since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
Regarding the Friday night incident, the LPD is still seeking suspects.
In addition to three injured by gunfire, a fourth also sustained a non-gun-related injury.
On Saturday, according to the Journal de Montréal, Laval Police Dept. director Pierre Brochu identified some of the victims as being associated with local street gangs, singling out a particular gang known as the Flameheads.
