Montreal police say a 17-year-old boy is dead following a shooting Thursday evening in the city's Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.

Late Friday, police said they were still looking for a suspect after the victim was shot at least once near the corner of Rivard and Roy Streets.

Police said 911 calls alerted them to the gunshots and they found the teen with injuries to his upper body. He was transported to hospital in critical condition where he died.

Friends of the victim and politicians identified him on social media as Amir Benayad, a member of the city's Algerian community.

Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant said the victim of the first homicide recorded in the city in 2022 was not known to police. Police spoke to witnesses and were looking for surveillance video from the area. 

Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault offered her condolences on Twitter to the family of the victim. She said what is happening in Montreal is "worrying." Dedicated police units, she added, are working to reduce gun violence in the city and across Quebec.

Mayor Valérie Plante said on Twitter, "My heart goes out to the family, loved ones and friends of this young man."

He is the fifth young person to die violently in less than a year in Montreal.

In early December, Hani Ouahdi, 20, was gunned down in a car in the city's east-end Anjou district. In mid-November, Thomas Trudel, 16, was shot in the city's St-Michel borough as he walked home from a park.

Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16, died after being stabbed outside his school in October. Two people have been arrested in his death. And last February, Meriem Boundaoui, 15, of La Prairie, Que., was killed in a drive-by shooting in the St-Leonard borough.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press