A conflict between a member of the Hells Angels and Marco Pizzi is believed to be the backdrop to the shots fired at the mafioso’s used vehicle business in east Montreal on September 4, 2023.
This is what the evidence presented during the investigation into the release of one of the two alleged sponsors of the contract, Mathieu Scott-Dumont, reveals.
The evidence also shows that it was the four individuals directly involved in the September 4 event who denounced the two sponsors, because they only received $1,000 of a promised sum of $15,000.
On September 4, 2023, around 10:40 p.m., ten shots were fired at the Gestion Automobiles Plus dealership on Notre-Dame Street East, some even going through the window of the business, without however causing any injuries.
According to the evidence presented, two days before the events, Scott-Dumont and an accomplice, Benjamyn Paquette, met three individuals in a park, near the water’s edge, in Lachine, and gave them the murder weapon, an AR-15 style automatic rifle.
They allegedly promised them $15,000 and demanded that they film the scene when the shots were fired, to prove they fulfilled their contract.
On September 4, four suspects, all from the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield region, got into two vehicles, followed each other to the east of Montreal, scouted around the business, opened fire from one of the vehicles before fleeing.
After the shooting, the shooters wanted to get paid, but the sponsors only offered them $1,000.
Two months after the shootings, the four individuals suspected of having fulfilled the contract were arrested.
The police gathered a lot of evidence and found in one of the seized phones a video proving that the contract had been fulfilled.
The suspects then made confessions and denounced Scott-Dumont and Paquette.
“An accomplice mentioned that to his knowledge, the shooting was ordered in the context of a war between the Hells Angels and the Italian mafia. According to the public prosecutor’s allegations, the targeted dealership is linked to Marco Pizzi, an influential member of Italian organized crime in Montreal who is said to be active in drug trafficking and illegal betting,” writes Judge Dennis Galiatsatos of the Court of Quebec in his decision, adding that the businesses and vehicles of Pizzi and some of his relatives were targeted ten times by shootings or arson in 2022 and 2023, and that he himself was the victim of an attempted murder in 2016 .
Paquette did not request his release. Scott-Dumont, yes, but Judge Galiatsatos refused it.
“In the midst of a violent and relentless war between rival organized crime clans, there is no question of the Tribunal releasing individuals who organize drive-by shootings, thereby endangering the public. Such a decision would clearly bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”
“Every individual who uses firearms illegally and dangerously contributes to the proliferation of the problem and the omnipresence of weapons. It would be artificial and unrealistic to completely dissociate the accused from this data,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Scott-Dumont has no criminal history and testified that he wanted to get his life back together.
He and Paquette were named sponsors in the evidence presented, but it is known that in the world of organized crime, there can be several participants between the real sponsor and the perpetrators.