A trial began Tuesday against two men accused of killing a Montreal teenager who was mistakenly shot to death in the city’s Saint-Leonard borough nearly five years ago. Meriem Boundaoui, 15, died from a bullet to the head on Feb. 7, 2021, while sitting in a parked car, in a case that shocked the province. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the Crown prosecutor during opening statements at the Montreal courthouse. Salim Touaibi, 27, was the first person to be arrested in the teen’s killing on June 26, 2022. He was charged with first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder. Days later, Aymane Bouadi, 27, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder. Both men are being tried by a judge and jury. In the courthouse on Tuesday, Boundaoui’s sister and brother-in-law sat quietly as the charges were read. They did not speak to media but told reporters years ago, when the arrests were made, that they are hoping for peace for Boundaoui’s soul. According to a court document unsealed in February 2023 that laid out the Crown’s theory in the case, Boundaoui was an “innocent victim” in the shooting, which was a culmination of a months-long dispute between the owners of a barber shop and a grocery store on Jean-Talon Street in Saint-Leonard. On the day Boundaoui was killed, a meeting was held between members of the feuding families to settle their dispute behind the grocery store. At 6:03 p.m., a Mercedes C300 pulled up next to a Volkswagen Jetta, according to the unsealed court document. The Mercedes driver asked if the man inside the Jetta was from the barbershop and was told that he was. Five gunshots were then fired into the Jetta, fatally striking Boundaoui, who was a passenger, and another man who survived. Three more bystanders who were near the Jetta were also hit. The identities of the other four victims are protected by a publication ban. The Crown presented the same theory to the jury on Tuesday and presented photos that were entered into evidence showing shell casings recovered at the scene and bullet holes in the side of the Jetta. The prosecution alleges Touaibi was the driver of the white Mercedes and Bouadi was in the passenger seat. The prosecution intends to rely on evidence from surveillance video, voice recordings, and data retrieved from both the car and the accused’s cellphones to prove their case. Boundaoui was killed one month before her 16th birthday. Friends said she had moved to Quebec from Algeria, settling in La Prairie, on Montreal’s South Shore, and attended Pierre-Bedard high school in St-Remi. The trial, which is scheduled to last between 10 and 12 weeks, continues Wednesday.
