return to court of the five co-accused

William Keita, Jarryd Xavier Taylor, Zachary Dryden, Bernard-Brian Lewis-Philipp and Patrick Francis who are detained in Rivière-des-Prairies, Bordeaux or Rimouski will have to return by videoconference to court on October 23 at the Rimouski courthouse to set the date for their preliminary investigation as well as for the orientation and declaration stage.

Back to the facts

Police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) were called on September 7 around 11:45 a.m. for a possible altercation in a residence on rue Aubin in Mont-Joli. When they arrived at the scene, they found a man in his 40s seriously injured. He was transported to a hospital, where he died of his injuries. The exact cause of his injuries is not yet known.

A few hours after the events, the five men were arrested by SQ patrol officers on Highway 20 in Rimouski. The next day, they appeared at the Rimouski courthouse to be charged with carrying weapons for dangerous purposes.

When they returned to court on September 12, Judge Luce Kennedy brought new charges against them: second-degree murder. The magistrate also ordered their incarceration. Aged 18 to 27, the five Montrealers have no criminal record.

One of the accused, Jarryd Xavier Taylor, played university football with the Concordia Stingers for three seasons and the Montreal Carabins for one season.

Victim linked to Hells Angels

The victim was well known to the police for having been linked to the Hells Angels. André Bourgoin, who resided in Mont-Joli, was arrested in 2019 by the SQ on the sidelines of Operation Oursin, whose mandate was to attack the leaders of organized crime, including members in good standing of the Hells Angels, in the fight against drug trafficking. The operation allowed the capture of around forty individuals.

Led by Bourgoin, the Mont-Joli network operated in Eastern Quebec and New Brunswick. The man pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy. In 2021, he received 54 months of imprisonment.