It was late at night on October 11, 2018, and Vincenzo Vinci's phone rang. It must have been 11:15 p.m. Her mother's number, Sara, was on the display. Weird, thought Vincenzo: my mother never calls at this time, she's already in bed.
He has answered. And it was her father, Tony, who was on the phone. This was really, really weird: Sara and Tony had been separated for a long time, since 1997. Vincenzo's father started talking: “Yeah, hello…” Tony hadn't finished the word "hello" that Vincenzo heard his mother, he heard his mother's wailing. A sound that he still struggles to describe, three years later, a sound that still haunts him. "Something happened to your brother Alex," Tony finally told his eldest son. - "Something" ?
- He left. - Left ? - Left. » * * * Alessandro Vinci was born on November 28, 1986. Gifted at school, but not interested in school. Interested in business, in cars. His father had a garage where he sold used cars, Vinci Automobiles, on Lévesque Boulevard in Laval. Vinci's three sons, Vincenzo, Elvio and Alessandro, worked there, as well as in another car business operated by Tony. Alex's interpersonal skills, charisma and ingenuity have made him a gifted salesperson. He sold – and bought – cars, while dad Tony repaired them, in the workshop, on Lévesque Boulevard. A thunderous tandem.
Tony came to Canada from Italy with $100 and his talent as a mechanic in 1971. The money from the marriage to Sara allowed him to buy a Petrofina garage. Alessandro was the youngest of Tony and Sara's three sons. A pillar of the family, who called her 90-year-old grandmother twice a day, who went to lunch with her at her residence a few times a week. Alex was also Elvio's protector. Elvio was born with a mild intellectual disability. Alex always kept him under his wing; where Alex went, Elvio went. For Elvio and Vincenzo, Alex was more than a brother: “He was, says Vincenzo, our best friend. »
And on October 11, 2018 at 8:36 p.m. and 24 seconds – we know this thanks to a surveillance camera – a man entered Vinci Automobiles and found Alex there, who was alone, on the phone, in the office. The stranger shot him 15 times. The surveillance camera shows him fleeing the scene, 20 seconds later. * * * Vincenzo, that evening, took the car, he went north up Papineau and he crossed the bridge to go to his mother's. It was unreal: Alex, dead. Impossible. Vincenzo was in a sort of denial. On the way to his mother's house, he saw a sea of ??flashing lights in the distance in front of the family business.
It was stronger than him: he stopped, he got out of the car and he notified a policeman who immediately banned him from the perimeter. “But he is my brother, pleaded Vincenzo … - It's your brother ? replied the policeman. - Yes. » The agent lifted the yellow blindfold, invited Vincenzo to follow him to meet the investigators. Through the garage windows, Vincenzo saw a blanket on the floor inside, in front of the desk. He later found out that this blanket was on his little brother's body. Vincenzo met an investigator, who promised to talk to him later, but told him that for now he had to leave the scene of the crime. Vincenzo got back in the car to go find his parents, at his mother's. The scene still tenses his face: “My father was destroyed. My mother... My mother was wailing. She couldn't say anything, she could hardly breathe. All she could do was…those moans. » Vincenzo spent the night sitting next to his mother on the couch. Saying nothing, feeling useless like he had never felt useless.
Around 5 a.m., Vincenzo's phone began to vibrate. Worried text messages from relatives were beginning to reach him. He understood that Alex's murder had been publicized.
At 6 a.m., Sara, her mother, was finally able to speak words, between her sobs. She said, “They killed my baby. »
Vincenzo read the article in La Presse recounting the murder of his brother on October 12, 2018, the next day. He read words that would be devastating in his life, in the life of his family, words that added to the drama that the Vincis lived, and still live. I quote the article: “Laval police officers began the investigation before transferring the file to their colleagues at the Crimes Against Persons Division of the Sûreté du Québec, presumably because the murder could be linked to organized crime. » The article was signed by my colleague Daniel Renaud, who has covered criminal cases for La Presse since 2012. Daniel has written three books on organized crime. He is a seasoned, rigorous, respected journalist.
