3 homicides in 4 months: What's happening in Laval?

Ferdinando Belmonte's death on Tuesday is Laval's third homicide of 2016. Just halfway into the year, it's already more than the city's average of two per year.

• 22-year-old man found dead in Laval's Saint-Vincent-de-Paul district

Belmonte was found by police in front of a duplex on Lévesque Boulevard around 8 p.m. and was pronounced dead on the scene.

"The injuries he suffered were due to either gunshots or a knife," said Laval police spokesman Franco Di Genova.

A Laval 2015 police report shows that the city has had an average of two homicides per year, for the past five years.

Other homicides have Mafia connection

2016's murders began with the shooting of Lorenzo Giordano on March 1.

• Rizzuto 'underboss' shot dead in Laval
• Reputed high-ranking Montreal Mafia member killed in Laval

Giardano was a high-ranking member of the Rizutto crime family described by an RCMP witness at the Charbonneau commission as an "underboss."

Three months later, Rocco Sollecito, another reputed high-ranking member of the Rizzuto crime family, was shot and killed.

The Rizzuto crime family, which has long been considered one of the most powerful in Canada, has been in an extended period of upheaval.

Di Genova said that he expected more Mafia-related murders to come in Laval.

However, he said he doesn't think Belmonte's death fits the pattern of Giardano and Sollecito's killings.

"The first two [homicides] were related to organized crime. This one here, the young man is not known to us, as far as I can tell no criminal history, so it's not connected," Di Genova said.  

Gunshots heard Tuesday evening

On Tuesday evening, gunshots were heard twice in the St-François section of Laval, about three kilometres from the spot where Belmonte was found.

Again, Di Genova said they were not likely connected to Belmonte's death.

"We did have gunshots in the last few weeks in the area, but at this point, there's nothing relating those incidents with the incident we have here," he said.  

Police have not found any witnesses to the incidents.

Laval police plan to set up a command post on Montée du Moulin in St-François on Thursday and Friday evening, in the hope that anyone who knows anything will stop by to speak with investigators.