Montreal

Quebec biker-war victim Daniel Desrochers, 11, remembered 20 years later

A ceremony was held in Montreal on Sunday to remember Daniel Desrochers, a boy who was killed at the height of the biker-gang war in Quebec.

Hells Angels and Rock Machine rival biker gangs believed to be responsible for deadly explosion

A marker for Daniel Desrochers, an 11-year-old boy who was killed when a car bomb went off in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. (Radio-Canada)

A ceremony was held in Montreal on Sunday to remember Daniel Desrochers, a boy who was killed at the height of the biker-gang war in Quebec.

Desrochers was critically injured on Aug. 9, 1995, at the age of 11, when a car bomb was set off outside a biker hangout in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

The boy died four days later.

The explosion is said to have been an event in the long turf battle between the Hells Angels, led by Maurice "Mom" Boucher, and rival gang the Rock Machine.

Quebecers became furious with the rival bikers and soon after a mixed-police squad began Operation Carcajou to try to quell biker violence in the province.

Desrochers's mother, Josée-Anne Desrochers, died from pneumonia in 2005 at the age of 40. Before she died, she had launched a crusade against the presence of criminal bikers and members of biker organizations.

The explosion also killed Marc Dubé, the person inside of the Jeep at the time the bomb went off. 

The years-long turf war claimed more than 150 lives, including two prison guards. Mom Boucher is serving three concurrent life sentences for the two murder convictions, and for a conviction of attempted murder, with no chance for parole until 2022.