The death of a 15-year-old girl in a drive-by shooting highlights the tragic consequences of gun violence, a Quebec Superior Court judge said Thursday as he handed a Montreal man two life sentences for his role in the crime.

Justice Yvan Poulin told a Montreal courtroom that Meriem Boundaoui’s tragic death in 2021 sheds light on the scourge of illegal weapons trafficking.

“It cost the life of an innocent victim, with no connection to the conflict, the targeted individuals or the events in question,” he said. “It illustrates the concrete consequences of gun violence in public spaces, which must be the object of clear, firm and constant denunciation.”

Poulin sentenced Salim Touaibi to life in prison for Boundaoui’s death and gave him a second life sentence for the attempted murder of four people who were nearby when he started shooting. He has no chance of parole for 25 years.

A jury convicted Touaibi last month of first-degree murder for pulling up to a car and opening fire, fatally shooting Boundaoui as she sat in the passenger seat of the targeted vehicle on Feb. 7, 2021.

Poulin described Boundaoui as a bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was caught in the crossfire of a conflict between two family businesses that did not concern her.

He said Touaibi had been “tracking” his rivals to kill them, to avenge one of his friends who had been beaten up as part of the conflict. The fact that he shot the teen instead doesn’t make him any less guilty, the judge said.

Poulin noted that several members of Boundaoui’s large family, including her parents and sister, had testified during a sentencing hearing to the profound pain and suffering her death had caused.

“It is a question of lives turned upside down, of constant and daily pain, a void that cannot be filled, broken dreams, hearts forever broken, incomprehension, wasted lives, a feeling that nothing is like it was and a pain that is hard to describe,” the judge said.

Poulin also noted that lasting damage was done to the attempted murder victims, whose identities are protected by a publication ban. One of the victims, who was shot twice, testified to being forced to give up a promising tennis career because of his injuries, which caused him profound physical and mental suffering.

Another victim was seen on security cameras carrying Boundaoui’s lifeless body in his arms following the shooting, in what the judge described as “a horror scene of extraordinary brutality, leaving the people who were present deeply marked by the violence of the events.”

Touaibi said on the stand during the trial that he was the shooter, but testified he didn’t realize Boundaoui or anyone else was in the Jetta when he shot at it intending to scare the people nearby after feeling threatened.

Poulin said Thursday that his version of events was not believed by the jury, and did not raise reasonable doubt around Touaibi’s guilt.

While reading his verdict, the judge noted that Touaibi led a “life marked by criminality” that included several weapons-related offences. One of his arrests happened in March 2022, more than a year after Boundaoui’s death but prior to his arrest for her murder, he said.

Poulin said the harsh sentence on the attempted murder charges was justified for a number of reasons, including the brutality of the crime, number of victims, the use of a firearm in a public place, the consequences on the victims, and Touaibi’s prior criminal record and the fact that he was on probation when the crime occurred.

As for attenuating factors that would justify a more lenient sentence, he said they were, “for all practical purposes, nonexistent.”

Another man who was in the car with Touaibi and faced the same charges was acquitted by the jury.

The death of the high school student shook Quebec’s Algerian community and prompted wider calls for stronger measures to stop gun violence. Montreal’s mayor and police chief later announced a new police unit targeting gun traffickers in the wake of her death and that of two other teens the same year.

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