Expect retaliation after Starbucks shooting of organized crime figure, expert says

MONTREAL — A former Montreal police investigator warns that more violence could follow this week’s shooting at a Starbucks north of the city, as the victim was formally identified as an organized crime figure.

Charalambos Theologou, 40, died in the mid-morning shooting at a commercial plaza in Laval, Que. that also left two other people wounded, Quebec’s coroner’s office confirmed Friday.

Laval’s police chief described him earlier in the week as a person connected to organized crime, and parole board records show a criminal past that includes drug trafficking, weapons possession and conspiracy.

Pietro Poletti, a former lieutenant detective with the Montreal police, says street-level organized crime today is marked by easy access to guns and the lack of a single leader imposing rules.

“There’s a big void, everybody wants a piece of the pie, there’s a lot of drugs in the market and everybody wants a piece of the territory,” he said in a phone interview.

He said shootings in public places aren’t unheard of, although they’re more common in parking lots or establishments that are known to be frequented mostly by criminals. He described modern street thugs as “yahoos” with long criminal records who resort quickly to violence, and said there is likely to be retaliation for Wednesday’s shooting.

“The people who did this shooting, obviously they eliminated the leader of one clan, so they’ll go after other people to try to take back the territory,” he said. “That’s inevitable.”

The most recent parole board decision for Theologou was in 2014, when the board imposed conditions prior to his statutory release following a more than eight-year prison sentence for a series of drug and weapons crimes.

“The official information reports that you were part of an organization working in drug trafficking,” the report reads. “Through electronic surveillance it was discovered that, between March and May 2012, you sold cocaine and crack, helped individuals become sellers for the organization, trafficked with undercover officers and were seen loitering in places where drugs were sold.”

The report noted he originally received a sentence of three years and three months in 2006, but was sentenced to additional time in 2010 after committing more offences while on parole. The board also noted that he was granted statutory release in 2013, but that this release was temporarily suspended after he was rearrested as part of another investigation.

The board said the contributing factors to his criminality included “association with criminal peers, immaturity, idleness, substance abuse, the lure of gain and taste for…luxury.” His risk of recidivism was assessed as moderate, while motivation, accountability and reintegration potential were described as low.

Quebec provincial police are leading the investigation into Wednesday’s shooting, and had not made any arrests as of midday Friday.

Earlier, they confirmed that a burnt-out vehicle found in a northeastern Montreal parking lot could be linked to the fatal event.

Montreal police said someone called 911 at about 3 a.m. on Thursday to report a vehicle that was burning in a parking lot in the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough.

Police spokesperson Annie-Claude Racine said firefighters put out the blaze, then called police when they saw traces of accelerants.

The other two victims in the coffee shop shooting were not fatally hurt. The province’s public security minister has suggested there were no “innocent” victims of the shooting, and police have said the victims were likely connected to each other.

Poletti said the security footage from inside the coffee shop showed the three victims looking relaxed, and suggested they might have been waiting to meet someone.

Laval police Chief Pierre Brochet said Wednesday after the shooting that police would increase visibility on the territory, as well as pressure on organized crime. He said organized crime in Laval has been marked above all by rapid change. “Therefore, it’s our ability to adapt that’s important,” he said, adding that Laval police were working with other forces.

Both he and Laval’s mayor noted that gun crimes were trending lower in Laval in recent years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2025.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press