A woman in her twenties is in critical condition after being stabbed in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough of Montreal on Friday evening.
The call to the SPVM was made around 7 p.m. for a dispute in an apartment on rue Aylwin, between rue Sherbrooke and rue Hochelaga.
“Arrived on the scene, the police located a woman in her twenties who was assaulted at least once in the upper body with a stab,” said agent Jean-Pierre Brabant, of the SPVM.
According to information obtained by The newspaper, the young woman was bleeding profusely when the police arrived. The murder weapon was also found at the scene.
“The connection is still unknown, whether the victim and the attacker knew each other or if they had a relationship before. It is certain that this is a hypothesis that is currently on the table and that the investigators will have to verify, ”said SPVM spokesperson Mariane Allaire Morin.
The authorities feared for the life of the young woman whose identity had not been revealed at the end of the evening yesterday.
The suspect, Jerry Avril, a 32-year-old man known to the police and with around 30 cases to his credit, was quickly arrested by SPVM officers not far from the scene of the event.
Having blood on his hands, he was taken to hospital to check that he was not injured. He was to be met later by investigators.
He was charged last December for a history of armed assault that occurred in a marital context.
Avril also made headlines in February 2018 after pulling out a gun in a bar on rue Jean-Talon, in the Villeray district. Customers had managed to subdue him until the police arrived. He had pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 15 months in prison and 3 years probation as well as a lifetime ban from possessing a firearm.
If the victim’s death is confirmed, it would be the fifth femicide since the beginning of 2022 and the third in just ten days.
Last week, Madeleine Désormeaux, 68, was reportedly killed by several projectiles from firearms by her spouse, Laurent Thibault, in Lebel-sur-Quévillon, in Nord-du-Québec. The 76-year-old would then have turned the gun on himself.
The next day, a 49-year-old man was charged with the unpremeditated murder of his partner, Louise Avon, whose body was found in the rubble of their burnt-out residence in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts.
February 18
Murder of Patrizia Rao, 59, followed by the suicide of her spouse Frédérick-Lynn Blair, 63, in Dunham, Estrie.
February 19
Murder of Maria Cristovao, 71, followed by the suicide of her spouse Joao Marques, 75, in Laval.
31 mars
Murder of Madeleine Désormeaux, 68, followed by the suicide of her spouse Laurent Thibault, 76, in Lebel-sur-Quévillon.