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Family and community members attend the funeral of Michel Mizrahi, in Montreal, on Wednesday.Charlotte Glorieux/The Canadian Press
Michel Mizrahi, the 68-year-old civilian killed during the Montreal shootout earlier this week that left three dead, was remembered at his funeral as a selfless hero who saved lives.
Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday morning at Paperman & Sons funeral home not far from the site of the deadly shootout. A large crowd was left standing at the back of the hall after the seats filled up, and rabbis were present from synagogues across the city.
Bystanders who were at the scene on Monday say Mr. Mizrahi ushered them to safety after the shooter began firing. But he apparently never sought shelter himself. Videos of the gunfight appear to show he was shot accidentally by a police officer. Montreal police, on Wednesday, would not comment on any aspect of the shooting, including Mr. Mizrahi’s death.
Those who knew him say they’re not surprised that Mr. Mizrahi, generous to a fault, would have put others’ safety ahead of his own.
His son, Shlomi, spoke through tears at his father’s service. “He died a hero, because that’s who my father was,” he said. “Helping others was in his nature, and was stronger than him.”
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Michel Mizrahi in a photo provided by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.The Canadian Press
Mr. Mizrahi was one of three people killed during a gunfight between police and a rifle-wielding suspect by a Montreal hotel in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges district. Montreal police Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane and the gunman were fatally shot during the firefight, while a female officer was seriously wounded.
An Islamic funeral prayer was held Wednesday evening for Constable Benredouane, with a public gathering expected at a later date.
The shooting, which began late Monday morning, took place by the hotel and in front of a building that houses the offices of the adult-content distributor Aylo, which operates Pornhub. Police are investigating whether the operators of Pornhub were a target, the national-security source told The Globe and Mail. The Globe is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
Police investigating whether Montreal shooter targeted Pornhub, source says
Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, a university student from Lethbridge, Alta., was identified Tuesday as the suspect in the shooting. Local police, at the request of Quebec provincial police, searched Mr. Hatfield’s home. By Wednesday morning, the explosive-disposal and tactical units had departed and residents who had been asked to vacate their homes during the search were also allowed to return.
A manifesto attributed to Mr. Hatfield expresses various grievances and complains that “common males” debase themselves watching pornography because they aren’t successful with women. It also contains passages that are antisemitic, anti-capitalist and that encourage violence against police and others.
The national-security source on Tuesday said the manifesto circulating online is the same one that police have linked to Mr. Hatfield.
Keren Loutati and Liel Navi, who attended Mr. Mizrahi’s funeral, said he saved their lives on Monday. The two cousins were planning to meet at a smoothie shop in the same building that houses Aylo. Ms. Navi arrived first, and didn’t believe the sounds she was hearing were gunshots until Mr. Mizrahi, outside the shop, told her there was a shooter.
Family and community members gathered Wednesday to mourn Michel Moshe Mizrahi.
The Associated Press
She ducked inside. A few minutes later, Ms. Loutati arrived and he sent her in as well. The cousins hid in a bathroom with three other people, including a friend and her 10-year-old daughter, for the next two hours. At some point during the gunfight, shots were fired through the bathroom door, they said.
“We were calling our husbands and saying our goodbyes,” Ms. Loutati said, adding that Mr. Mizrahi was “like an angel.”
Isaac Mayer, the son of one of Mr. Mizrahi’s best friends, said he was the kind of person who would save others. “I just wish that he also ran for cover.”
Mr. Mayer said that after reports of the shooting began to circulate on Monday, his father, Leon, called his friend more than 100 times before they learned what had happened through social media.
“We saw the most terrible video we could have ever seen,” he said.
Another of Mr. Mizrahi’s long-time friends, Alain Pereque, said he’s angry that they were left to wait in the dark for hours after the gunfight. He said he and Leon Mayer drove around to different hospitals trying to find their friend, only to learn at 6:30 p.m. that he had died.
“It’s not normal,” Mr. Pereque said.
Mr. Mizrahi grew up with Mr. Pereque and Leon Mayer in Beirut – “the three musketeers,” Isaac Mayer called them. Mr. Mizrahi decided to join his friends in Canada after coming over for Mr. Pereque’s wedding in the 1980s.
“We were inseparable,” Mr. Pereque said. “He had a big heart, always positive and always joking, always smiling. That’s Michel.”
Mr. Mizrahi’s body is to be buried in Israel, where his two daughters live.
With a report from The Canadian Press