MONTREAL, Quebec – A 23-year-old man has pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm at a Montreal Jewish school in November 2023, nearly three years after shots were fired at the building during a period of heightened concern over attacks targeting the city’s Jewish community.
Abdirazak Mahdi Ahmed entered a guilty plea Sept. 9 at the Montreal courthouse in connection with the Nov. 12, 2023 shooting at Yeshiva Gedola Merkaz Hatorah in the Cรดte-des-Neiges neighborhood.
The shooting occurred shortly before 5 a.m. Nobody was inside the school, and no injuries were reported.
The case resulted in a conviction for discharging a firearm, but not for a hate or terrorism offense. Crown prosecutor Jean-Christophe Ardanos said investigators did not have sufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that antisemitism motivated the shooting.
The distinction is significant in a case involving gunfire directed at an explicitly Jewish institution just weeks after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel and during an escalating period of security concerns for Montreal’s Jewish community.
In Ahmed’s case, prosecutors have specifically said that evidentiary threshold was not met.
DNA, Cellphone Data And A Stolen Vehicle
Evidence presented in court provided investigators with several links between Ahmed and the shooting.
According to reporting on the agreed statement of facts, a stolen Acura RDX was used in connection with the attack and later abandoned. Ahmed’s DNA was recovered from items inside the vehicle, including a face mask and glove.
Cellphone data also placed his phone near Yeshiva Gedola and near where the stolen vehicle was later abandoned.
Police arrested Ahmed in May 2024.
Investigators also placed an undercover police officer in a cell with Ahmed. Statements Ahmed made while in custody contributed to the evidence establishing his involvement in the shooting.
Police responding to Yeshiva Gedola after the shooting found damage to the building. Reporting on the agreed facts said investigators recovered four 9mm shell casings and found three bullet holes in the school’s door.
Ahmed had originally faced charges including intentionally discharging a firearm as well as offenses related to stolen vehicles following his May 2024 arrest.
Five-And-A-Half-Year Sentence Expected
The Crown and defense are expected to recommend a joint sentence of 66 months, or five and a half years in prison, with credit for time Ahmed has already spent in custody.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 19.
The sentencing hearing was delayed to provide members of Montreal’s Jewish community with an opportunity to participate in the process and address the court.
Ahmed has been in custody since his arrest.
One Of Several Shootings Targeting Jewish Institutions
The Nov. 12 shooting was particularly alarming because Yeshiva Gedola had already been struck by gunfire only days earlier.
On Nov. 9, 2023, shots were fired at Yeshiva Gedola and the nearby United Talmud Torahs of Montreal. The incidents caused property damage, but no injuries were reported.
Ahmed has not been publicly charged in connection with either of those Nov. 9 shootings, which remain unsolved.
The attacks came during an increasingly tense security environment for Montreal’s Jewish community following Oct. 7.
When Ahmed was arrested in May 2024, Federation CJA said the shooting had forced Montreal’s Jewish community to increase its investment in security.
Yair Szlak, president and CEO of Federation CJA, said at the time that the organization would continue working through its Community Security Network to protect Jewish life in Montreal and ensure that violence targeting Jewish schools and institutions was not tolerated.
The guilty plea now provides a measure of legal resolution in one of the shootings.
It does not, however, answer why Yeshiva Gedola was targeted.
Despite the nature of the target and the timing of the attack, prosecutors maintain that the evidence available to them does not establish an antisemitic motive to the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
The separate Nov. 9 shootings targeting Yeshiva Gedola and United Talmud Torahs remain unresolved.
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