According to media reports, former Sudbury Olympic boxer Phil Boudreault was shot while riding his motorcycle near Lachute, Que. Saturday morning.
Sources say he suffered a punctured lung in the attack, which officers from the Surete de Quebec believe was linked to organized crime.
Police have not named the shooting victim, but according to reports,sources have identified him as Boudreault, a 41-year-old Sudbury native and vice-president for the Hells Angels Ontario Nomads who had been living in Quebec.
Police were called at around 10:30 a.m. about an incident on Bethany Road. A man was found lying in a ditch, his motorcycle at his side.
The assailants reportedly fled in an older, gray-blue SUV, which police are trying to locate.
CTV News in Montreal reported a resident who lives nearby and who did not want to be named said he heard bangs and then a series of rapid-fire shots. He ran to the road and found the biker in pain and lying on the road with a woman at his side, CTV reported.
A second motorcyclist who was riding with them came and dragged the victim away to a ditch, the resident said. The resident spoke to the victim – an anglophone – who told him he is a member of the Hells Angels, CTV reported.
Boudreault represented Canada in the light welterweight division at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
The former boxer was declared a long-term offender in August 2005, after he was found guilty of an assault on a Valley East father and son in March, 2004.
In August 2007, Boudreault was placed on a five-year long-term supervision order after completing a two-year prison term for the assault. The Crown had sought to have him declared a dangerous offender.
Boudreault made several attempts to resume his boxing career and compiled a 5-1 record as a professional, but couldn’t stay out of legal trouble.
