Shooting at Kanesatake home

A Kanehsata’kehró:non in his 50s was rushed to Sacre Coeur Hospital Friday night with “injuries consistent with a gunshot wound,” a Surete du Quebec spokesperson confirmed, but the victim survived.

The incident, which led to emergency services being called to Rang Ste. Philomene around 10:30 p.m. on December 5, is being treated as an attempted murder by the Major Crimes Investigation Division.

Multiple sources have confirmed to The Eastern Door that the victim is Normand Theoret, shot at his own home on the territory by an intruder.

“Following the incident, a large-scale search operation was launched to locate the suspect vehicle and its occupant(s), but no arrests had been made as of Saturday morning,” said SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier, by which time the victim had been confirmed to be in a stable condition.

“Meanwhile, investigators and forensic identification technicians were on site Saturday morning to analyze the scene and try to understand what happened. Ballistics experts were also called in, as the injuries were most likely caused by a firearm.”

Tessier confirmed on Thursday morning there was no new information.

“The only info is that his life is not in danger,” Tessier said.

There is anxiety in the community, according to Kanesatake Perimeter Security (KPS) coordinator Kane Montour. To many, it feels like an escalation.

Whereas a shooting in 2021 in broad daylight at the Green Room killed Arsène Mompoint, he wasn’t part of the fabric of the community. In this case, while the victim’s condition is stable, the man is one of Kanesatake’s own.

“It’s scary times we’re in right now,” Montour said.

“Never in a million years did I think that we would come to this, where we’d have to worry about the protection of our kids, our neighbours. Is it going to start being shootings next now? In this community, we’ve been plagued by fires, arsons, what’s next? Is it shootings now?”

The KPS responded to the incident, with its members instructed to assist in any way possible, to be helpful and supportive but to stay out of the way.

In the aftermath, the KPS is focused on increasing patrols, checking in with one another frequently, and monitoring community hotspots closely, doing what they can with the resources they have.

“We’re out here and we’re here in the community. Our main goal is to keep the community safer, and we’re adapting and figuring out ways to do that with what we have,” he said. “We just want the community to know they’re not alone. There are a lot of tragic things that are happening, and here at KPS, we’re just trying to ease some of those tensions and keep everybody calm, one day at a time.”

The rise in arsons in Kanesatake is well-documented at this point, with a dramatic rise over the past couple years. Last summer, The Eastern Door reported there had been no arrests for any arson in a seven-year period, during which at least 15 suspected criminal fires had taken place.

Many of the arsons in the community have targeted cannabis shops. Most recently, Theoret’s own Sweet Grass cannabis dispensary was burned down in August in a likely arson.

Theoret’s store had previously been damaged in November 2024. .

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter