Suspect charged in Duff Court murder

Extended: Murder in Duff Court Scenes from an overnight murder in Lachine.

Dustin Lombardi, 27, has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the city's final homicide of 2014, which took place in the Duff Court area of Lachine on December 22.

Police made the arrest Thursday evening after a police officer recognized Lombardi as a passenger in a vehicle that he had pulled over on a routine traffic stop near the corner of Girouard and Sherbrooke in NDG.

"The police officer did a good job, he looked into the car and recognized the homicide suspect from an email that was sent to all the officers," said Montreal police representative Jean-Pierre Brabant, who noted that police are provided about 100 such wanted photos in the course of a year.

Lombardi, who goes by the nicknames Dusty and Nasty-D, was unlawfully at large at the time and being sought by the RCMP on a Canada-wide warrant issued for his arrest on weapons, assault and death threat-related charges.

He was charged Friday in Montreal court with first degree murder and possession of narcotics.

News of the arrest caused ripples on Montreal-area social media profiles Friday and Saturday, as friends of the victim celebrated the development in a variety of comments.

Some others who said that they know Lombari expressed surprise that he has been accused. " I just can't believe he was so soft spoken and nice I just can't believe," one young woman wrote on Facebook.

Police found Francis David Rosenberg, 24, in a car near 2050 Duff Court Street at 10:20 p.m. He had been shot and later died in hospital.The fatal shot was taken from outside of Rosenberg’s car, possibly by someone sitting in a nearby vehicle.

Rosenberg was known to police and had served time in prison after being charged with a variety of drugs, weapons, assault and parole violations since the age of 20, including one high-profile affair in September 2013 at a casino in Gatineau.

One unconfirmed media report suggested that the victim and accused had fought at an earlier date.

Montreal police describe it as the 28th murder of 2014 but it was in fact the 26th homicide, as two files from previous years are included in their totals.