Street gangs and foot pursuit: night tour with Éclipse

“Oh oh oh!” He’s coming out! He’s going to run! That’s it, it’s running! », exclaims Lieutenant Luce Aita, of the Eclipse section of the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), to her sergeant, who is driving their patrol car. With one jump, she sets off in pursuit of the young suspect who wants to avoid being arrested at all costs.

A few moments earlier, two passers-by alerted the police duo. They caught the man smashing the back window of a SUV.

If you want to stop him, the guy got into the black car up front over there. He just ran away when he saw yousays one of the witnesses, pointing to a car driving away in the streets of Old Montreal.

Flashing lights and siren on, the patrol car in which we are with Sergeant Francis Beauvais and Lieutenant Luce Aita catches up with the suspect’s vehicle.

Sensing his imminent arrest, a young man climbs out of the front passenger side window and then runs away.

52-86 in foot pursuit! calls Sergeant Beauvais to warn his nearby teams that he is chasing a suspected car thief with his patrol partner.

It’s 1 a.m. The young fugitive’s only hope is to outrun the police through the dimly lit alleys leading to Rue William. Sitting in the back, we are drawn into the desperate race of the young suspect, which takes place before our eyes.

He’s in the access lane for the 720, eastbound! says a voice on the radio waves.

Running out of options, the suspect climbed over the security fence that separates Robert-Bourassa Boulevard from the Ville-Marie highway and threw himself into the void. He landed six meters below, or about two stories high, on the access road leading to the motorway tunnel.

Officer Martin Bernard, who is participating in this police chase, is stunned.

He crossed the four lanes of the boulevard in front of us, without looking to see if a vehicle could hit him at high speed. And the fall in the tunnel could have killed him instantlynotes the information officer of the Eclipse section.

This is the end of the 23-year-old suspect’s run, injured in the legs. He will be identified as a street gang member from the northeast of the metropolis, with a history of drugs and firearms.

Once the suspect was arrested and transported to the hospital, we returned to his vehicle abandoned behind him. There is a young woman handcuffed and crying. She served as the driver of the alleged car thief.

According to her identification documents, the suspect has just turned 18: she is celebrating her birthday that evening. She was found in possession of a replica handgun, a knife and a computer for copying electronic keys.

Observing her from the sidewalk, Lieutenant Luce Aita is saddened that the young woman is celebrating her majority by being the driver of a street gang member.

These young people often come from a disadvantaged background, so it’s attention and influence that fuel them. The hard core will make these young people work easilysaddens the detective lieutenant.

Looking for witnesses

Before attending this spectacular pursuit on foot, we were in the field for a night shift with the Éclipse group from SPVM. Currently, some restaurant and bar owners in Old Montreal and downtown are victims of extortion and arson attributed to at least three criminal groups engaged in a turf war.

Once the suspects have been arrested, the Eclipse team’s objective is to find the two witnesses who alerted us to the crime in progress. They reportedly entered a popular nightclub nearby.

The police consult together before entering the establishment to try to locate them. The doorman instantly opens the door without asking questions about the sudden presence of a dozen police officers.

Inside, the place is packed and the music is deafening.

Taking a few glances at the customers, an Eclipse police officer shows us a group of young people sitting on a bench and who have opened around ten bottles of champagne.

In this gang, I can point you to at least eight guys who are criminals. The one celebrating with them is an influencer who already participated in a reality show a few years agosays the police officer, who is hard to hear due to the decibel level.

The Eclipse section visits daily the places most frequented by young street gang members and those who sympathize with them. They know the police. And the police know them too.

Around ten minutes will be enough for Detective Lieutenant Aita to identify two people who match the physical description of the witnesses sought in the nightclub. A few questions confirm that it was indeed they who spoke to her in the street.

Mission accomplished: the police take their names and contact details, information which will be useful to complete the investigation.

This intervention is a concrete example of what the Éclipse section does with its police officers specializing in Montreal nightlife, part of whose work consists of gathering information with the aim of fighting crime.

The squad also has a repressive mandate: since the start of the year, 112 young criminals encountered in various establishments have been arrested by the squad. SPVM for breach of conditions under an arrest warrant or for illegal possession of firearms.

Don’t act like a cowboy

The Rivière-des-Prairies sector is also part of our itinerary.

The police recognize a young suspect who was in a restaurant-bar. He is the subject of several court warrants. He agreed to go speak to the police outside, where a courteous and calm exchange ensued. The young man did not resist the police, who handcuffed him.

During their tours, the Eclipse police officers are aware of the need not to show up as cowboys to act tough. Their job is to establish relationships with the criminal world. Over the past 15 years, several relationships of trust have been built, and the work continues with the arrival of new faces.

Intelligence [criminel] who comes out of this [le travail d’Éclipse]it’s a bible. Of course, our investigations benefit after thatlaunches without reservation Commander Francis Renaud, head of the organized crime section at SPVM.

The city of Montreal has the highest population density in Quebec. The information of the SPVM therefore also benefit other police forces engaged in the fight against the emergence of street gangs.

The evening ends in the premises of the Eclipse section, the location of which is kept secret. The patrol car we were in drove several kilometers during the night shift.

The information contained in the police notebooks after visiting around ten locations will be collated before being transmitted to their colleagues responsible for criminal investigations.