N.S. Hells Angel arrested in Montreal double homicide

A Nova Scotia man arrested Monday in connection with a double homicide in Montreal in January is a suspected member of the Nomads, an elite branch of the Hells Angels, who was swept up in a 2001 raid on the Halifax chapter of the motorcycle gang.

Jeffrey Albert Lynds, 42, was arrested by police in Truro, N.S, following an investigation into the slaying of two men in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district Jan. 24.

Lynds has not yet been charged, and police would not speculate on what charges he could face. They would also not speculate on a motive for the Montreal killings.

Montreal police said investigators with the department's major crimes unit will travel to Nova Scotia to retrieve Lynds in the coming days.

Once in Montreal, Lynds will be interrogated by investigators, said Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux.

Other arrests are possible, she said.

Lynds was arrested in December 2001 in a series of raids targetting the Halifax chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. He was sentenced to three years in prison as a result of that raid, dubbed Operation Hammer, and given a lifetime firearms ban. He has since been released.

At the time of Operation Hammer and later, police identified Lynds as a suspected member of the Nomads.

Montreal shootings work of hit man: police

The Montreal shootings this year took place in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant at around 5 p.m. ET.

At the time, police said they believed the killings were the work of a hired hit man.

When officers arrived on the scene near the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue streets, they found one man with multiple gunshot wounds lying on the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police found a second wounded man sitting in a nearby car. He was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead.

Police sources later confirmed one of the shooting victims, Kirk Murray, was a convicted killer.

Murray, 47, had been released on full parole in 2003 after serving time for killing two men near the Verdun Yacht Club in Montreal in 1983.

The other shooting victim, Anthony Onesi, 51, was reported to be a bystander.

The slayings happened not far from where Nick Rizzuto Jr., the son of reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto, had been gunned down one month earlier.