The Ben Mulroney Show - Was a Montreal shooter in tactical gear targeting police? Our coverage as it happened.

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Guest: Paola Samuel / B'Nai Brith regional director Guest: Dan Spector/Global Montreal If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. We are very sad that we have to throw up, throw out a big chunk of our show today, because news that is of national importance

is still developing in real time. We are following the story of the shooting in Montreal, that has thus far left at least one police officer and one shooter dead. We're talking about the Cote Denege area of Montreal. It's northwest-ish of downtown. It is this area of Cote Denege is predominantly Jewish. The area of Cote Denege is a new neighborhood. It's a planned neighborhood called Westbury.

And what we know so far is around the noon hour, an eruption of shots of gunfire echoed through these very new buildings. The story that we have thus far is that a shooter was in the hotel. Actually, you know what? Let's listen just so you can get a sense of what people in this area heard. Yeah. Like I said, it is a fact that this is a Jewish neighborhood. I was at this hotel just two weeks ago.

It is, and I walked in, when I walked in, there was a Jewish family having a, taking the photos for their wedding. Across the street is a pizza place owned by an Orthodox Jewish family. As I walked to the event that I was there for, I walked past many Jewish families. I am not suggesting a link between the shooter and the people in that neighborhood. I am suggesting that the people in that neighborhood would have been, would have thought something was happening to their community. So on that note, as I said, ever-evolving story, lots to get to. And so we'd like to invite into the conversation, Benabreth Regional Director in Montreal, Paula Samuel, who was just across the street, Paula, when this took place. Hi. Hi. So our office is in the neighborhood.

the Benebrith's office is in the neighborhood. And so we were all very close to it. And all Jewish, just so that you know, all Jewish community centers and anything related to the Jewish community have been on lockdown since the shooting. But yes, it's been going on right next to us. I mean, our office is in the neighborhood. So, Paula, what do you know? Because I want to make sure that as we tell this story in real time, we are not putting anything out that is false. If there is a rumor, I want to let people know it's a rumor.

There was a story that there might have been multiple shooters and that one was still on the loose. Do you know anything? Correct. So what you've said so far, I'm going to add one thing that you said at the beginning. There is one civilian that has been confirmed killed. So it's one police officer, the active shooter and one civilian. There's another police officer who's a woman who's in very serious condition and has been rushed to the hospital. The story that you told it, the facts that you put through is exactly what we're hearing,

and also that there may be one or two active shooters out there. Yeah. This is, this is, I'll tell you, something that is also very new, at least in my experience, is the visuals that we have seen on social media, because it's a, you know, there's apartments in the area, there's businesses in the area, people were pulling out their phones and the angles of what we witnessed is unlike anything I've ever seen. We saw the one officer who has, I assume he's the one who passed away and the female officer, going toe to toe with a shooter who was geared up in tactical gear and had a long gun.

It looked like a scene from the movie Heat. Yeah. No, it looks, it really does. It looks like a scene from the movie. As you can imagine, the community is very shaken. Yes. We don't have confirmation. that it was a direct attack on the community of,

we don't have any kind of confirmation on that. But as you mentioned, it is smack in the middle of the Jewish community in an area that has also, it's sort of like a, it's a, it's a, got hotels, it's got apartment buildings and kind of a little strip mall with a Starbucks and a grocery store. So everyone, and park area where, you know, mothers are pushing their babies and, and it's a beautiful day, so people are hanging out. So around that time, it would have been pretty correct.

Yeah. And again, you're right. We don't know, but stating the fact that this took place in a Jewish neighborhood, when there are lots of other neighborhoods, I heard a rumor online, someone putting something out there that, oh, it wasn't Jews that were being targeted. It's the cops. There are other ways to attack cops if that's what you want to do than find a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and, I don't know, wait for cops. Now, do you know what's in the building across the street from the hotel? Because the story that we're hearing this, Sorry. So it's a bunch of, it's like it's, like you said, it's a new, you know, it's, it's newly built. Yeah. There's hotels on one side. It's a beautifully paved sort of driveway pathway and, and it's apartment buildings on the other side. And on the bottom of those apartment buildings is like a smoothie bar and a Starbucks and like that's what they are. Yeah, I had dinner in that pizza place two weeks ago. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And so, so, but from, from what we're hearing, the shots came out and we're going, there will be a, But there's going to be a press conference momentarily, and we'll be updating people as the story comes in. But the story that we've heard thus far is the shots came from a hotel room and were directed, at least in part, at the building to its north, which you're saying is, is an apartment building. Yeah, so it's a bunch of apartment buildings facing that hotel. It's not just one.

So it's a series of apartment buildings. The police chief has come out to say that these are his words. It's an absolute nightmare is what he's calling it. What has happened. And there's also stories that we're hearing. I'm not sure if it's confirmed by the police yet, but that the shooter called 911. And as the police started coming, he started shooting.

Which doesn't mean he wasn't shooting before. So he was trying to get them there. Right. Apollo, what was the feeling like in your office? Well, we were in a meeting and we started getting text from all sorts of people saying lockdown, there's an active shooter,

it's in the neighborhood, and so obviously we call security and as you can imagine everybody starts getting text from everyone and there's so many different stories that start coming in that nobody really knows what's going on. So there was definitely panic and concern but we are in a protected area

and so the initial reaction was obviously panic. And then we could, we were able, you know, we could see from far what was going on. There was a SWAT team. And it was a big, big, big operation, obviously. And then the video that you just sent started getting sent to us. And that was, I think, when people got the most concerned because those are a lot of shots that you hear one after. Yeah. And so you don't know if there are more coming.

And then there was other people in our building that had. had been outside when the shots started. And they said they thought it was an explosion because it was just so loud and one after another. But they were, and they ran back inside. So as far as we know, our office is safe and as far as we know everyone in our building is safe. But the police have been very, very, very active in going around and checking in on people and making sure everyone is sheltering in place. And is the order to shelter in place still on?

Are you still instructed to stay where you are? Yeah. We're still instructed to stay where we are and not go, not leave. I don't think anyone can come in or out of our building at the moment. So we're just, you know, we're doing our work and standing by and seeing what's going on. As far as we know, also the metros in the area have all been closed. So nobody can, you know, get into this area by mistake, obviously. Yeah, there's a lot, as you can imagine, you know, I'm a former journalist and,

And I know you've been in the media for a long time, as you know, that the stories keep changing with something so active and ongoing. And so what we thought was happening half an hour ago is not what we think is happening now. And so we're just all standing by. But deeply concerned for our community, obviously. And I've spoken to other colleagues that work at other Jewish communities organizations. And everyone's in lockdown with the appropriate amount of concern. Paula Samuel from Bonae Brith in Montreal. Thank you so much for joining us and for giving us a temperature of this situation.

Ben, as we're talking, there's another alert coming on. There's another alert coming through on all our phones. Okay. Let me see if I can. Yeah, it's, um... What's it saying? It's saying the alert regarding an armed and dangerous suspect at the Kootenegh neighborhood of Montreal has ended. There we go.

It's just ended. Yeah. Oh, thank goodness. The immediate threat to the public. is no longer present. That's wonderful news. How do you feel? Do you feel that the stress is relieved?

You know, that we could go outside now and we don't have to worry about that someone's going to come out of nowhere, you know? So yes, it just happens. Well, thank you for that. It means everything's under control. All right, Samuel, Paula Samuel from Bada, breath. Thank you so much for giving us the lay of the land and we appreciate it. Please stay safe.

Thank you so much. All right. So this story, there's a lot for us to get to. So what we're going to do is in our next segment. Oh, we are going to stick. Okay, we're going to stick with this. And don't go anywhere. We are going to see what we can learn during this commercial break,

much more on this developing story of a shootout between a one-arm shooter and the police that's left a police officer, a citizen, and the shooter dead in the Coteinage area of Montreal. It's Charles Barkleywood Wayfair. It's outdoor season and my patio. up, they'll be ready to play. That's what Wayfair wins.

Patio seating, umbrellas and grills. All delivered fast and easy. Shopwayfair.ca.c now. Wayfair, every style, every home. Well, the shelter-in-place order has been lifted in Montreal in the Cote Denege, Westbury neighborhood of Montreal. And thus far, we know that a police officer and a citizen,

as well as the shooter, have all been killed in what is still a tumultuous, ever-changing, ever-evolving situation. There's a lot of information we are awaiting. We don't know the motivation of the shooter. We don't know, well, that's what that's, and really that is going to determine so much of this. However, one thing we do have is more video of this shooting

than I think any of us expected. and in a lot of cases would ever want. We have, we, there's a, there's a theory floating out online that the police are the targets. And if that's the case, the video, the video that I just saw could be evidence of that. There's, someone is recording from what I believe to be their apartment or maybe an office across, It's not the street. It's across the footpath and sort of the driveway of, like I said, this very new complex. And there's a man, just regular everyday man, just standing there.

And the shooter runs by him. The camera then pans to, it passed the shooter in the direction that he's running. And there are two police officers that are taking cover. The shooter is actively hunting these police. police officers. He's hunting them. He's targeting them. And he is clearly dressed for this sort of exercise. He is in tactical gear. It looks like at one point he gets hit, but it doesn't seem to phase him, suggesting he's wearing some sort of body armor. When the camera eventually pans back to the shooter, he is taking cover because the cops are trying to shoot him. And when

the, when the, and he shoots at them another few times, the camera then pans back to the shooter. The camera then pants back, one of the police officers has been shot and is clearly bleeding out on the ground. He may be, he may be dead at that point. And in that moment, there is a citizen who's trying to take cover and we see him fall to the ground suggesting heavily that he was shot. And so we believe that the police officer and the citizen that we see in this video are the two who died. And the last remaining police officer in that moment. is the female officer. She's got her handgun, but this guy is dressed for war.

Then the other videos that we saw later on show us the end of that firefight that ended with the shooter in handcuffs. And then we learned later that he had passed away. Intrepid, am I missing anything? No, this is a shocking video that is all over the place right now. And absolutely, you do see him. The oddest thing is that he walks past an elderly gentleman. as if the guy's just not there because he's not a threat.

His target is, are the cops that are behind the pillars 20, 30 feet away. And he sets up behind the pillar and behind a flower container sort of thing. And he's firing. And there's a civilian just sort of standing there and he just goes down. And you can see him sort of, he flails one way and then he falls back and that's it. And meanwhile, the police officer who is still trying to fight back, I'm able to do it. And there's also a horrible trail of blood there.

Yeah. Which is we could guess from the other police officer. Well, it's shocking because you get a shot of the two police officers. And then the camera pans over to the shooter who takes a few shots. And by the time the camera gets back to those two officers, there is a newly appeared trail of blood. And the officer has been downed. It's happened so quickly and it is so gruesome.

And then sort of the next video that we saw, which we looked at a little earlier, was then as the officer is running around to get away from this guy, and she goes and she runs around the one side of the pillar, and he shows up, he takes her old position with his long gun. Yeah, and he tries to reload. And he's trying to reload. He's not very good at reloading, and he's sort of sitting back. And it appears like at this point he does get shot,

but he's also doing this mere feet away from the other fallen officer. Yes. Who is not moving. He's not moving. And then there's another, the first video that we saw was from above. Someone had been, I mean, it looked like three or four stories up directly above the fallen officer. And at that point, this must have been moments later or minutes later. The shooter is face down in either zip ties or handcuffs.

and somebody is attempting to keep this officer alive or cradling his head. It looks like they're trying to put pressure on the wounds from, I'm not an expert, but it does not look like that would have done much in that moment because there was so much blood. There was so much blood. So, yeah, those three videos, one after the other, tells a fairly complete story of the interaction. But again, because we don't know the motivation, in that moment, you're absolutely right. In that moment, it looks like the police are being hunted. It does.

And we're going to hear more from a reporter who was just at the press conference, Dan Spector, with Global Montreal. But the one thing we did hear, one of the rumors, was that he had called 911, this shooter called 911. And also, we did see the pictures, which were staggering of the actual, of the hotel, the start of the hotel. Yeah. The one window, likely the one that he was shooting from, sniping from, blown out completely, plus bullet holes in windows that are nearby. So, so yeah, this is now in that, like I was what I was saying,

in that moment he was, it looked like he was hunting the police. We don't know if that was the ultimate goal or whether that was a strategy to get to the next phase of his plan, right? Yeah. Like, was he waiting for, did he want to take these two cops out? so that he could then be free to do the rest of his plan, which required more police there. And at this point, it appears that those are the only cops that are there.

These are the first ones on scene. These are beat cops, right? Their cop car is just like when you see cops driving down the street in their patrol vehicle, these guys were on patrol. They were not outfitted for any sort of tactical interaction with a gunman. they were just they they were there and so that makes me wonder did he need to get them out of the way because he had a bigger plan if if those stories are to be believed that that he called 911 because he wanted the he wanted a bigger response well the other shot then is of from up top the

picture of one of the cops as another cop it looked like a supervisor or some sort uh just sitting down next to the fallen yeah police officer and it's it's very much looks He looks lifeless in that shot with the blood all over the place. But they're also looking around. And you can see that the shooter is there nearby, face down, handcuffed. And he also, that shooter, we presume, was the person who was dead. So he was lying there handcuffed. And he looked like he had tufts of blonde hair and wearing camouflage gear.

And who knows what kind of armor underneath that. Yeah. I mean, like I said, he was ready for bad. He was geared up and outfitted for battle. And those patrol men and women, they didn't know what they were walking into. And sadly, one has lost his life. We are reporting far too often on police officers who fall in the line of duty. The last week has been unbelievable.

It's been terrible. So we are going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to talk to Dan Specter, Global Montreal's reporter. He's been following this story on the ground. He's going to give us the latest update. from the Montreal police chief because when there's a firefight

in an area of Montreal that leaves one citizen, one police officer and a shooter dead, the country needs to know. This is the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back and thank you for sticking with us during this developing story. I suppose we could say it's a mass,

is it a mass casualty event? No, it's not. There's one thus far in Montreal. what we are learning is one civilian, one police officer, and the shooter have all died in this shootout. There was a shooting followed by a shootout with the police in the Westbury development of Cote Denege. I want to be clear, Cote Denege in Montreal is an exceptionally multicultural neighborhood. This pocket of that neighborhood is very Jewish.

It is high, high Jewish proportion of the population. And I say that because it's a fact, not because I am suggesting a motivation. Also, I am saying it because given the world we're living in, when Jews here fire, gunfire, they're going to think something specific these days in this country, in this time, in this moment. And therefore it needs to be said. but we are waiting on our global news reporter Dan Specter who is getting us the latest. I'm telling you, the video is, the video that is coming in on Twitter is absolutely soul rattling.

I've never seen this in a non-war setting in real time in our country, in neighborhoods like yours and neighborhoods like mine. I've never seen this before. This shooter, I think there are certain things that we can assume. And I'll say I'm making assumptions here. When a shooter dresses in tactical gear with the weaponry that he has, he's itching for a bloody fight. This is now he's not looking to be strategic or surgical. He is looking for a fight and he found it with these two brave police officers,

one of whom lost his life and his partner, it appears, ended the life of the shooter. Let's go to Dan Spector in Montreal. Dan, welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Tell me where you are and tell me what you know. I'm just standing on the DeCarrie Boulevard in central Montreal right now, just about 200 meters, I would say, from where the shooting unfolded. The police chief just finished the press conference a few moments ago.

What we do know is that three people are dead, including a police officer, a civilian, and the shooter after this shootout that occurred, just after 1130 this morning, police got a 911 call for gunshots that were ringing out from a hotel here on DeKerry Boulevard. It's a densely populated area, lots of traffic, very busy, would have been very busy at 1130 this morning. And police responded and immediately engaged with a shooter who was equipped with a long gun. Now, Dan, I don't mean to interrupt, but there's, there are a few questions that are out there that perhaps you have an answer to. There is a, there is a story floating out there that it is the shooter himself who called 911. Yeah, that is a rumor that's floating around.

asked the police chief about that. He said he didn't have that information as of now. He couldn't confirm anything like that. But that is definitely one of the theories that's going around is that this shooter himself called 911 and did this just to engage with police officers, that this was his goal. But that remains a theory.

Police wouldn't confirm that at all. They say they're still investigating. But what I can tell you is that videos circulating on social media show that this shooter was wearing sort of a, military green outfit. And when I asked the police chief about that, he said, yep, you know, he was. That's, you know, I could confirm what you're telling me is that he was wearing a military

green outfit. And he had a long gun. Does that mean he was specifically targeting the police that this was the goal? We just don't know yet. We don't know that yet. We do know that there were two police officers who were on the scene. They appear to be patrol men and women. A patrol man and a patrol woman appears that they were not,

They certainly didn't present as tactical. They didn't look like they were part of the Montreal equivalent of SWAT. Do you know if SWAT had been, their version of SWAT had been called? There's a way to be just sort of the regular uniforms who would have been the first ones to show up on the scene. And then as soon as they arrived, they got into this firefight.

And we know that a male police officer was the one that was killed. The police chief said that he would, He had spoken to the man's brother. He said he was devastated that Chief did because he had met this officer on a couple of different occasions and said he was an excellent officer and that it was a very emotional call. The second officer was a female officer. She was in critical condition. Her condition has been upgraded to stable now, so that's positive news.

I mean, in the videos that we've seen on social media, you don't see SWAT team there right at the outset. There's certainly a ton of them around now and, like, armored vehicles. because for time, police were pursuing the thought that maybe there was a second shooter. And just to rule that out, they've closed off a gigantic perimeter. The DeKerry Expressway, or anybody who's been to Montreal, is a huge north-south artery, a highway that cuts through the center of the city. It's completely closed in both directions. And they've been asking people to stay at home until just a few minutes ago when they sort of lifted that order

because they're convinced that there was just one person acting alone. Dan, we're learning that the murdered civilian has been identified as Rabbi Michelle Mosheh, a Jewish local member of the local Khabad Center. And that was announced by the organization itself. You know, Kodinej, as I said, very multicultural, but this pocket of Kodinej is densely populated with Jews. And this is, look, again, we don't want to speculate, but it's 2026 and we're living in a time. where 70% of the hate crimes in Canada are perpetrated against one and a half percent

of the population happens to be Jewish. I'm not suggesting there's a link, but it's a heck of a coincidence if there isn't one. Yeah, you know, it's a question that I asked to, and I was very curious about because, you know, as you're walking around in the streets here, you see there's lots of Hasidic Jews, and it's a very, you know,

it's one of the areas of Montreal that probably has the biggest Jewish population. But, you know, I actually spoke to, a few people who, you know, had been trickling out of some of the Jewish centers that do you guys feel like this is anti-Semitic? Are you afraid of this? And they said no. They said they don't actually think so. They said that they had been in contact or their community members had been in contact with the police and that the police assure them that it doesn't appear to be an anti-Semitic attack. But, you know, I actually have the same question because that gentleman owns, I believe, I was told, a suit store right in front of that hotel.

there's no indication that it was an anti-Semitic attack, at least not at this time. So he might have just been caught in the crossfire, really like a wrong place, wrong time, sort of situation. It could be. It might be. It may be a coincidence, but the setting and the timing and the time we're living in

makes my mind go there immediately. But of course we were waiting before. It's worth asking the question. Yeah, absolutely. So what's next in this investigation? What are we going to try to figure out next? motivation of this shooter seems paramount. And also, can we put to rest that there is a second shooter out there?

Yes, we can to arrest. According to the police, they say there is no second shooter out there. I, you know, was walking towards this location where they were going to do their press conference and ran across officers with their guns drawn who said, get out of the street. You're right in the line of fire right now. So I was like, oh, you know, we sort of dodged away. So that sort of led me to believe there could have been a second shooter. I mean, the Fifth Haguex helicopter was going around flying low.

So that certainly felt like there could have been another person. But the police chief just now confirmed, no, there was nobody. All that was done out of an abundance of caution. They even closed St. Joseph's oratory out of an abundance of caution because they were worried that maybe they could become a target. Yeah. Dan, I don't mean to cut you off. I only have time for one last question.

That development, it's a new development. and it was designed to be walkable. It was one of these new livable experiences where they want people to walk from place to place. Have you been able to speak to any of the residents or the people that call that neighborhood home who may have seen? I want to get a sense of the feeling of the people

who are living in that area. Yeah, absolutely. I spoke to a gentleman who lives in the apartment building just adjacent to the hotel and who had witnessed the entire thing and who shared a video with me. I mean, he was very shaken. People are just stunned that this has happened in their area.

I mean, they heard dozens of shots ring out. You know, this gentleman went to look on his balcony and just heard, it showed me this video that he had taken where you could hear at least 20 shots. And, you know, and then he went downstairs, and people were told to run, you know. This is probably the most horrifying day of many people's lives. who live in this area.

And, yeah, people, again, we're told to stay inside because it was a dangerous situation and that they shouldn't open their windows and that they shouldn't go out. So the whole area, definitely very shaken. But now that we know that there's no second shooter, hopefully there are some of those fears that have been listed. Dan, Spector, thank you so much for giving us this update.

And please, I know that you'll be on top of this story in the days to come. We hope that we can lean on you for additional information as it comes out. Of course, anytime. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

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