Police say it’s possible that late night vandalism to businesses in east-end Montreal on Monday is connected to similar crimes in St-Henri over the summer.
Witnesses told police they saw about 10 masked suspects smashing windows on Ste. Catherine St. near Orléans Ave. around 1:40 a.m. Monday. The suspects targeted five storefront windows and spray painted the buildings’ façades.
One of the bricks thrown through the window of Martin Lafrance’s Montreal Moderne furniture shop sits on a chair. The vandals then spray painted much of the inventory with orange paint.
Police investigators say it’s possible the wreckage was carried out by an anti-gentrification collective railing against upscale businesses in the traditionally working-class Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood.
At least 4 stores on Ste-Catherine Street East between Orleans and Jeanne-d’Arc Streets in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal were vandalized over night.
However, a spokesperson from the Montreal police says there’s no evidence to link Monday’s graffiti and the anti-gentrification vandalism seen in St-Henri and the east-end in recent years.
“Right now, the idea that this may have been done by anti-gentrification vandals is just one of many theories,” said police spokesperson Benoit Boisselle.
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