Shooting in Jewish neighborhood of Montreal leaves at least one officer dead, suspect neutralized

By RON KAMPEAS and TOVAH LAZAROFF

(JTA) — Montreal police said an alleged shooter in a neighborhood known for its large Jewish population had been “neutralized” after killing one police officer and wounding another officer and a civilian Monday.

Police car is seen in Montreal. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto)

“A suspect has been neutralized,” the official police account posted on X after advising residents Côte-des-Neiges to stay indoors. “Two police officers and one citizen have been injured. The police operation is still underway. Continue to avoid the area. Further details to follow.”

The Montreal Gazette later said that the suspect and the civilian also were dead.

It was not clear if the intended targets were Jewish, but Rabbi Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesman in New York, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that, based on what he has heard from Chabad representatives in Montreal, the shooting does not seem to be related to the Jewish community.

Many members of the Jewish community are sheltering in place on the street where the attack took place, with two telling JTA that, to best of their knowledge, the attack didn’t appear to be targeting Jews.

One of them, Moshe Blech, an Israeli who has been living in Montreal for the past two years, is a volunteer for the ZAKA volunteer emergency response service and was outside his house with his 8-year-old daughter when the shooting started.

Yitzhak Rosenblum, a member of the local Chevra Kadisha, a volunteer burial society, said that he was working at his office “when I heard a bunch of cops flying by and I heard some gunshots.”

Côte-des-Neiges was the scene of postwar Jewish settlement as Jewish families ascending from the working to the middle class moved west from the area of St. Laurent Boulevard. The area, with treelined streets studded with duplexes and low-rise apartment buildings, had a friendly neighborhood ambience and lacked the anti-Jewish restrictions some of the wealthier enclaves maintained at the time.

There are a number of Jewish schools and synagogues in the area, including the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, the oldest congregation in the country, established in 1768 and which moved to the neighborhood in 1947. The neighborhood is now the site of a large Chabad community and a number of Jewish restaurants and delis.

The neighborhood has been targeted by gunfire in recent years, including incidents in 2023 and 2024 where shots were fired at Orthodox schools.

This is a developing story.