A popular restaurant and bar in Île-Bizard became the scene of an altercation that turned bloody early Saturday morning, leaving a 20-year-old man who was stabbed in serious but stable condition.
“I have been the owner for eight years and nothing like this has ever happened here,” said Zhiqiam Yang, the owner of Bar Le Gagnant, on Cherrier St., just west of Jacques Bizard Blvd. “Usually, everybody who comes here knows each other.”
Montreal police spokesperson Constable Audrey-Anne Picard said that an argument began inside the bar at around 2:25 a.m. The dispute continued outside the bar and the 20-year-old man was stabbed. Picard said the victim was taken to a hospital and his condition is considered serious but stable.
“He is not co-operating with us,” Picard said of the victim while adding he is known to the police. She also said witnesses at the scene identified the stabber as a 35-year-old man who is also known to police. Picard said the man has yet to be found and that investigators would like to question him.
Five hours after the attempted murder, life on Cherrier St., one of the busiest roadways in Île-Bizard, had returned to relative normality.
Most of the people who showed up for breakfast at Yang’s business were unaware that a trail of blood stretched across Cherrier St. just outside the restaurant. One end of the trail ended in a large puddle of dried blood on a median.
Yang said he wasn’t present when the stabbing occurred. He said video cameras inside and outside the bar and restaurant captured part of the altercation, in particular when it spilled out into the parking lot. He had to wait for the police to download the videos before he could start serving breakfasts. He said a female employee who was working at the bar when everything happened told him that she had never seen the man who is now being sought by police before.
“And she knows everyone in Île-Bizard,” Yang said while more than a dozen of his clients ate their breakfasts. “It’s so rare for something like this to happen in Île-Bizard.”
One of Yang’s regular customers had to change her Saturday routine of reading the morning newspaper while leisurely eating her breakfast because, when she arrived, access to the eatery was blocked while crime scene investigators did their work. She opted for a breakfast diner in a strip mall nearby.
“It is such a nice, friendly place where everyone knows each other. I’ve been going there for eight years and nothing like this has ever happened,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be published. “But then again, at night it turns into a bar, a place where people go to drink, and when that happens you never know what might arrive.”