O'Nell-Cius Williams, a 23-year-old man and longtime resident of Montreal's West Island, was fatally shot in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough on June 12, 2020. Contemporary reporting places his death on that date rather than September 30, 2026. The shooting unfolded shortly after midnight on Dauville Street, near de Boulogne Street and Gouin Boulevard West, in what was initially investigated as a drive-by attack.
Williams was sitting in the driver's seat of a parked vehicle with another person when a second vehicle approached. Police said Williams and his passenger had apparently been consuming drugs inside the parked car. Someone in the approaching vehicle opened fire toward them and then fled. Williams was struck by gunfire in the upper body, while the passenger escaped the shooting without being injured.
Despite being seriously wounded, Williams managed to put the vehicle in motion and tried to get away from the area. He soon lost control and crashed into a fence outside a residence on Dauville Street. Emergency personnel found him suffering from gunshot wounds, and he was rushed to a hospital in critical condition. Police later confirmed that he died from his injuries shortly after 7:30 that morning. His death became Montreal's eighth homicide of 2020.
Investigators initially had no publicly identified suspect and were trying to determine why the vehicle had been targeted. The passenger, who was also unharmed in the subsequent crash, became an important part of the investigation because he had been sitting beside Williams when the shots were fired. The gunman or gunmen left the area in the other vehicle before police arrived.
Nearly a year later, Williams's mother, Sandra Valentin, publicly appealed for information that could identify those responsible. She said the investigator assigned to the case had told the family that police believed the shooting may have been a case of mistaken identity. According to Valentin, investigators believed Williams was not the intended target and that the person sitting beside him in the vehicle may instead have been the person the attackers were trying to shoot. She maintained that her son had nothing to do with whatever circumstances led to the attack.
Valentin also disclosed that investigators had arrested one person during the investigation, but that individual was subsequently released because police did not have enough evidence to hold or charge the person. No name was publicly released in connection with that arrest, and the available reporting does not indicate that the individual was ever formally accused of Williams's murder.
Beyond the circumstances of the shooting, Valentin described her son as someone who had been working hard toward his future. She said he was holding three jobs and had hoped to purchase a condominium. His sudden death left his family seeking both answers and accountability, and his mother repeatedly urged anyone with information to speak with police rather than allow the case to remain unresolved.
Publicly available information continues to describe Williams's killing as unsolved. No subsequent reporting located identifies a suspect who has been charged, brought to trial, or convicted in connection with the shooting. The central unanswered questions remain who was inside the vehicle from which the shots were fired, who pulled the trigger, and whether investigators were correct in believing that Williams was killed because the attackers had mistaken him for—or were actually targeting—the passenger sitting beside him.
