A mellow Canada Day in Montreal was shattered with news that a gunman had shot two men dead in a bar called the Nite Lite in a strip mall on Newman near LaPierre.
The two dead are brothers Jamie Laramee, 37, and his little brother Cody Laramee, 25.
A third man was shot but will recover.
One rumour has it that the shooting was not a mob hit, but rather committed by a mentally unstable person who was angered with an interaction at the bar.
Cody was known to be a happy-go-lucky young man, friendly, outgoing, head-shaved, local Irish guy with a cute Italian girlfriend who "didn't have it coming."
The brothers were in the West End Gang and the older one, Jamie, had an association with a mafioso named Pietro D'Adamo, who is currently in prison serving six years on charges related to the Colisee investigation that slammed the Rizzuto crew.
Jamie Laramee, was described by one witness as a "a tough guy," served two years on involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of Michael Pugliese, 34, in 1999.
The LaSalle bar ecosphere is known to be a sometimes rough, with bars such as the Voodoo Lounge and the Haraiki.
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| Gio Armani and staff |
A third man was shot but will recover.
One rumour has it that the shooting was not a mob hit, but rather committed by a mentally unstable person who was angered with an interaction at the bar.
Cody was known to be a happy-go-lucky young man, friendly, outgoing, head-shaved, local Irish guy with a cute Italian girlfriend who "didn't have it coming."
The brothers were in the West End Gang and the older one, Jamie, had an association with a mafioso named Pietro D'Adamo, who is currently in prison serving six years on charges related to the Colisee investigation that slammed the Rizzuto crew.
Jamie Laramee, was described by one witness as a "a tough guy," served two years on involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of Michael Pugliese, 34, in 1999.
The LaSalle bar ecosphere is known to be a sometimes rough, with bars such as the Voodoo Lounge and the Haraiki.
Such was true of the Laramee brothers' old haunt, the Petit Méné Bar Billard across the street at 2220 Lapierre, which had its license revoked in 2009, partially because the Laramee brothers were known to hang out there.The Petit Méné had also been robbed four times in 2007 and 2008, twice while closed (once for $5,000 from the safe) and twice by men with guns, who robbed clients and another time grabbed $3,000 from the register.
The bar was owned by Rosalie Macri and effectively run by Mario Macri, Domenico Macri, Vincent Macri and Gino Calantino. Authorities were unimpressed that Rosalie knew very little about her own business.
The Nite Lite, however, doesn't come up in any records as a troubled place, not at least until the Laramees attracted it there.
It is, as you can see in the photos, a pub-style place which attracted a slightly older crowd, although crowd might be a misnomer as even on their halfhearted Facebook page photos it appears that they never attracted much critical mass.The manager appears to be someone named Gio Armani and there were Habs jerseys, Italia flags pinned to the walls, a pool table, foosball, karaoke nights, and wet t-shirt contests.
So why would someone come in and shoot two people dead and hit another? Drug turf war, would be the obvious conclusion and if it's that, hopefully it's not the sign of a larger struggle to come.
In a city that has barely seen any murders since the end of mafia settling-of-accounts in February, it's a bit of a shock. It's the kind of barroom blast-up we haven't much since the days of Richard Blass or the biker war of the 90s. We'll keep you posted on anything we hear.