The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of stabbing a pedestrian near Paul Séguin Park in the LaSalle neighborhood of Montreal in early June.
The suspect, Benjamin Webster, was arrested Thursday at his LaSalle home and appeared at the Montreal courthouse the next day to face an attempted murder charge.
He is accused of attacking a pedestrian near the Paul Séguin park at around 9:30 p.m. on June 4 with a knife in the neck. “The motive for the crime is still unknown at the moment,” said the SPVM.
The suspect had been the subject of an intense police manhunt for several weeks. A mobile command post was deployed by the SPVM in mid-June to encourage potential witnesses to submit information.
The SPVM said it is continuing its investigation to resolve two other similar knife attacks that recently occurred in LaSalle.
The first took place around 1:15 am on May 31, when a man exiting a training center and waiting for the bus on Bishop-Power Boulevard near George Street was stabbed in the side. The other attack occurred around 10:30 p.m. on July 7, when a man sitting on a bench in Ouellette Park was stabbed in the neck from behind. The victim then tried to escape and was stabbed in the back a second time.
Anyone with information can contact 911, their neighborhood station, or anonymously and confidentially through Info-Crime Montreal at 514 393-1133 or the reporting form available on the website. infocrimemontreal.ca.