Police often called to N.D.G. building where man was badly beaten

There’s drugs and there are crackheads,' ex-resident says. 'I couldn’t put up with it anymore'

By Paul Cherry, Gazette Crime Reporter

N.D.G. resident Carrie Lee Main speaks to the media on Monday outside her apartment building on Grand Blvd. near St. Jacques St., where police were called when a victim was found badly beaten.Photograph by: Dave Sidaway, The GazetteMONTREAL – France Mallet figures she got out at the right time.

The 38-year-old mother of three said she left the apartment building on Grand Blvd. near St. Jacques St. in Notre Dame de Grâce, where a man was badly beaten late Sunday night, two years ago after coming to the conclusion it simply wasn’t a safe place for her children to grow up. She moved to another address on the same street and said she is happier now but memories, like waking up at 4 a.m. one morning to find a SWAT team in the building, are still fresh in her mind.

“That building is a problem,” Mallet said while recalling the six years she spent at 2045 Grand Blvd. “There’s drugs and there are crackheads. I couldn’t put up with it anymore. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”

The police are frequent visitors to the three-storey apartment building and paid another visit Sunday night after 11 p.m. after a man was assaulted by a group of people. He suffered injuries to his head that left him in critical but stable condition after being taken to a hospital, said Montreal police Constable Anie Lemieux.

Six people – four men and two women described as being in their 20s – were arrested and were still being questioned Monday afternoon.

Constable Olivier Lapointe said investigators believe the man, described as being in his late 50s, knew the people who assaulted him and might have been attending a party inside their apartment before he was beaten.

Bablo Zaman, a former concierge of the building, said the victim was not a resident of the building but knew the people who lived in the apartment where he was assaulted. Zaman estimated the police have had to visit the building about 10 times in the last year.

“There are lots of problems like loud parties here. But I’ve never seen anything like this,” Zaman said as crime scene technicians walked in and out of the building, just north of St. Jacques St. W., carrying evidence packed in paper bags.

Residents said they could hear the sounds of a loud argument on the third floor. A long trail of blood drops could be found on the stairway that leads to the main exit, where the victim was found when police arrived.

Jonathan Haineault was stirred from his sleep in his third-floor apartment by the sounds of an argument.

“I heard someone say ‘Get out! Get out of my apartment!’ It was obvious there was an argument,” Haineault said adding he went back to sleep without giving the noise much thought. He said he was surprised to learn how violent things turned out as he watched a televised report on the assault Monday morning.

Carrie Lee Main, who lives in an apartment on the second floor, said she could hear loud music coming from the floor above her’s late Sunday night.

“It happens every second night. It’s from people who have no respect for anybody in the building,” she said.

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