Michael Mizrahi, an Israeli citizen and longtime member of Montreal’s Jewish community, has been identified as the civilian killed in Monday’s shooting involving a gunman and Canadian police officers in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood.
The suspected gunman was killed during the incident, the investigation of which is ongoing. Police have not confirmed who shot Mizrahi.
The alleged gunman, however, was identified by the Quebec coroner’s office as Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, from Lethbridge, Alberta, according to the Associated Press. A manifesto allegedly written by Hatfield links him to “involuntary celibate” or “incel” ideology, a misogynistic online subculture that often blames women for their romantic or sexual frustrations, the outlet reported.
The Israeli Consulate in Montreal confirmed Mizrahi’s death, saying in a statement that he was an Israeli citizen and extended condolences to his family “on behalf of the people and the State of Israel.” The consulate said his family “knows all too well the horrors of terror and violence, making this tragic loss even more painful.”
Montreal police Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, was also fatally shot responding to the incident, according to police.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal said Benredouane died in the line of duty while protecting the public during an intervention in Côte-des-Neiges, a heavily Jewish neighborhood. He had served with the force since 2021.
A second officer, who is female, was also shot and remains in critical condition, police said.
Mizrahi was a member of Chabad Côte Saint-Luc, about a 10-minute drive from where the shooting took place. Rabbi Levy Raskin, the synagogue’s director of teen and young adult programming, had known Mizrahi for 35 years.
He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone interview that Mizrahi was “just a very kind, very loving man,” who was respectful to everyone. “Even when I went to visit him when he had open heart surgery years ago, he was still positive,” he said.
Mizrahi sold suits for a living, and Raskin said the moment he heard someone needed a suit, “say for an upcoming bar mitzvah, he called you right away to go over measurements.”
Ahead of the fateful shooting, Raskin said Mizrahi was getting coffee with another shul member and when the shooting started they both ran out of the coffee shop. “They ran in two different directions and unfortunately [Mizrahi’s] life was taken.”
It was not uncommon for Mizrahi to invite friends out and buy them coffee, Raskin added, noting that he’d invited another friend for coffee that morning but the man had said he was already at work.
Amidst the unfolding chaos on Monday, Raskin said the community knew right away that he had been struck in the shooting. There was confusion afterwards, however, about Mizrahi’s condition.
Mizrahi’s son, he said, “was running to the hospital trying to find out what was going on, but it wasn’t until the end of the day when we learned from police that he’d been killed.”
With the investigation ongoing and with Jewish law requiring a body to be buried as soon as possible, Raskin said community advocates and the Chevra Kadisha, or Jewish burial society, “are working hard on getting the body released as soon as possible.”
The plan, he said, is for a funeral to be held in Montreal and for Mizrahi’s body to then be flown to Israel for burial alongside his family members in the city of Holon.
For now, he said, the community is in shock. “People have a lot of questions, and they’re trying to find community strength.” The shul held a small gathering for Mizrahi on Monday night.
“Michael was someone we loved,” Raskin said. “This is a big tragedy for the community, but it also could have been so much worse. In this time of darkness, it’s important for us to increase the light with goodness, kindness, and to make the world a better place.”
Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, the province’s police watchdog, has opened an independent investigation into the use of a firearm by a police officer in a fatal confrontation.The Quebec police watchdog group states that it is “mandated to fully investigate the facts surrounding police interventions. The BEI investigates all cases where a person, other than a police officer on duty, dies, suffers serious injury, or is injured by a firearm used by a police officer during a police intervention or while in police custody.”
A number of Canadian Jewish groups published statements assuring the Jewish community that they were not in danger. The UJA-Federation of Toronto put out two statements explaining that the Jewish community did not appear to be a target.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of Canadian Jewish Federations, also put out a statement mourning the loss of a community member.
“We mourn the tragic loss of Michael (Michel) Moshe Mizrahi z”l, a beloved member of Montreal’s Jewish community, an innocent victim of today’s events,” the group posted on X on Monday night. “Our thoughts and our deepest condolences are with his family, friends, and loved ones during this time of unimaginable pain.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X that he had called the Chabad Rabbi of Montreal Mendel Raskin to extend his “deepest condolences to the families of the victims, to the Jewish community of Montreal, and to all Canadians mourning this terrible loss.”
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