Teen girl's shooting death in St-Léonard was 'a catastrophe,' says accused in murder trial
One of the two men accused of the murder of 15-year-old Meriem Boundaoui in St-Léonard five years ago told the jury hearing his trial on Tuesday he had no idea the man who was driving the Mercedes-Benz he was riding in would pull out a firearm and open fire.
Aymane Bouadi, 30, became emotional while testifying in his defence at the trial where he and Salim Touaibi, 30, are charged with first-degree murder and multiple counts of attempted murder. At the start of the trial, the jury was told Boundaoui was shot while seated in the front passenger seat of a Volkswagen Jetta parked near a bakery on Jean-Talon St. E. on Feb. 7, 2021.
The Crown’s theory is that the teenage girl was killed by accident within context of a conflict between the owners of businesses close to where the shooting took place. The conflict was over parking spaces used by the clients of a hair salon and a grocery store owned by the same family that owned the bakery.
On Monday, Touaibi finished testifying in his defence. Over the course of a few days last week, he told the jury he was the one who opened fire on the Jetta. He also said he did not know anyone was inside the car and that his intention was to scare people who were outside the vehicle that very cold day. Touaibi also said he opened fire because he felt intimidated because someone threw a backpack toward his vehicle when he pulled up next to the Jetta.
Bouadi, a friend of Touaibi’s since high school, told the jury he knew very little about the conflict and that, shortly before the shooting, he agreed to ride in his friend’s Mercedes to get something to eat. After they picked up food from a restaurant that could only offer takeout meals because of COVID-19 measures, they continued to drive and Touaibi ultimately headed to the bakery after he spoke to someone over his phone.
Suddenly, Bouadi said, the Mercedes pulled up next to the Jetta, the passenger side window next to him opened up and words were exchanged.
“I had never seen these people (standing at the front and back of the Jetta) before in my life,” Bouadi said. “It all happened so quickly.
“After the exchange, there was this (Touaibi’s) arm (in front of him) and detonations.
“There was (gun) powder in my face.”
Bouadi’s testimony matched what Touaibi said of the shooting. The latter said he felt threatened by someone outside the Jetta, grabbed a firearm he had purchased a month before from a “man purse,” and fired off eight shots quickly. Touaibi also said he had no idea someone was inside the Jetta.
“It all happened so fast — bap, bap, bap, bap,” Bouadi said, adding he checked himself to see if he was shot as Touaibi drove away. “My brain was running at a thousand miles per hour.”
Bouadi repeated what Touaibi said about how they drove northward to a point somewhere on Gouin Blvd. Touaibi said he went there to hide the firearm on the bank of a frozen river. Bouadi said he decided to make the long walk to his home in Montreal North.
Bouadi said that when he checked for news reports of the shooting hours later, he was shocked to learn what had happened.
“I checked the news and it was a catastrophe … a young girl,” he said.
Sometime after the shooting, Bouadi said he and Touaibi had a conversation about the homicide.
Touaibi “asked me: ‘You didn’t hear what (the people outside the Jetta) said?’ He said that he thought it was us who would be shot that day,” Bouadi said. “He apologized a lot. He said he was obligated to do it — that he was sure they would shoot us.
“He talked about turning himself in.”
When he was cross-examined by prosecutor Simon Lapierre, Bouadi admitted he lied to a Montreal police homicide investigator when he was arrested and interrogated. Bouadi told the investigator he knew no one from either side of the conflict. The Rekik family owned the hair salon and the Bensalem family owned the grocery store and bakery.
On Tuesday, Bouadi conceded he has known Abdelbari (Barry) Bensalem since high school. The jury has been told that, in the days leading up to the shooting, Bensalem was upset over how his brother had recently been assaulted near the hair salon.
“So you lied about knowing anyone from the Rekik and Bensalem families,” Lapierre asked at one point.
“Yes, but there were a lot of people involved in all of this,” Bouadi replied. “I didn’t want to put people in trouble.
“There were enough people in trouble.”