Trial begins in 2021 drive-by shooting that killed Montreal teen Meriem Boundaoui

MONTREAL — An argument over parking spots between family owned businesses is at the heart of a fatal 2021 shooting that cost 15-year-old Meriem Boundaoui her life, the Crown told the start of a murder trial on Tuesday.

In her opening statement, Crown prosecutor Katerine Brabant laid out the events that led to two men being charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Boundaoui and the attempted murder of four other people on Feb. 7, 2021.

“The evidence will reveal that Meriem lost her life because of a conflict that doesn’t concern her, a conflict that wasn’t hers, that was foreign to her,” Brabant told the Montreal courtroom.

“In fact, you’ll learn that Meriem lost her life because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Boundaoui was shot in the head while sitting in the passenger seat of a Volkswagen Jetta that was struck by bullets in Montreal’s St-Léonard borough. A white, two-door Mercedes rental car had pulled up next to the Jetta, then shots rang out before the luxury car sped off, Brabant said.

The Crown will establish that the people inside the Mercedes were the accused — Aymane Bouadi, 30, and Salim Touaibi, 29, the prosecutor said. Both accused have pleaded not guilty.

“The evidence will establish that they are the ones who caused the death of Meriem,” Brabant said.

The pair were arrested days apart by Montreal police in June 2022.

Brabant told jurors the conflict stemmed from two families over parking spots. One family owned a barbershop on Jean-Talon Street while the other owned a grocery store across from it. In the months preceding the shooting, the grocery store owners were critical of barbershop clients using the parking lot belonging to the market, the prosecutor said.

“The evidence will reveal that it was this chain of conflicts, culminating in the shooting, that led to the accused committing the act,” Brabant said. “Indeed, you will learn that the accused … were close to a member of the family (that owned the grocery store).”

The vehicle inside which Boundaoui was shot was parked behind a bakery belonging to the family that owned the grocery store.

Brabant said the prosecution intends to present evidence including GPS tracking data, cellphone data, surveillance video and wiretap recordings involving the accused.

Superior Court Justice Yvan Poulin is overseeing the jury trial, which is scheduled to last up to 12 weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2026.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press