Quebec provincial police have opened a double-murder investigation in Rivière-du-Loup, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, after two young women were found shot inside a vehicle in a restaurant parking lot late Thursday night. One woman was pronounced dead at the scene, and the second died in hospital. No arrests had been made as of Friday.
What police say happened
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) said officers were alerted at about 10:45 p.m. on Thursday by citizens who heard gunfire. The shooting happened in a parking lot near a restaurant at the corner of boulevard Cartier and rue Plourde in Rivière-du-Loup. Boulevard Cartier is the town’s main road, part of Route 132, and CBC reported the vehicle was found behind the restaurant, near Highway 20 (Autoroute 20).
When officers arrived, they found two women inside a vehicle, both seriously injured by gunfire. The death of the first woman was confirmed at the scene. The second was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The victims, and what police have not released
SQ spokesperson Sgt. Anne Bilodeau said the two victims appeared to be young adults, in their early twenties, but that their identities had not yet been formally established. She said it was also too early to say which region the women came from.
Police released no names on Friday, and none are published here. Some news outlets have reported specific ages for the two women, but those reports differ from one another, and the SQ had not formally identified the victims, so this report relies on the police description only.
A major-crimes investigation, and no arrests yet
Because the deaths are being treated as murders, the SQ has handed the file to its investigations service for crimes against the person, the unit that handles homicide cases in the province. Radio-Canada reported that investigators set up a security perimeter around the parking lot so their work could proceed.
As of Friday, police had made no arrests and had released no description of a suspect. The SQ has not said what led to the shooting, and many basic questions — who fired, and why the two women were in that parking lot at that hour — remained unanswered at the time of its first public statements.
A reported line of inquiry that police have not confirmed
Radio-Canada reported on Friday that investigators were examining whether the shooting was a targeted attack connected to organized crime and the drug trade. That line of inquiry has been reported by journalists; it has not been confirmed by the Sûreté du Québec, which has not publicly stated any motive.
Readers should treat the distinction seriously. In the first hours of a homicide investigation, police confirm very little, and theories reported from sources can change as evidence is gathered. What is confirmed is narrow: two young women were shot in a parked vehicle, both died, and a homicide investigation is under way.
A rare killing in a St. Lawrence river town
Rivière-du-Loup is a south-shore St. Lawrence River city and one of the main service centres of the Bas-Saint-Laurent, where Route 132 meets Autoroute 20 on the road between Quebec City and Rimouski. The parking lot where the women were found sits on that main commercial strip, a stretch of restaurants and businesses used by local residents and highway travellers alike.
Regional reporting noted that violence of this kind is exceptional for the municipality, and suggested the deaths could be the first murders within the town in more than a decade. Police have not confirmed that figure. What is clear is that a double shooting on the town’s main road, on an ordinary Thursday night, has left a small community looking for answers that, as of Friday, investigators were still working to provide.
