POLICE SUSPECT MAN'S MURDER IS LINKED TO DRUG TRAFFICKING

Point Resident Known As Chad, And For Having Scary Pit Bull

To many residents of Charon St. in the Point, he was known as Chad and
had the meanest looking dog around.

But the Montreal police are more interested in Trevor (Chad) Antoine's
suspected involvement in drug trafficking as a possible explanation of
why he was shot dead in a Point St. Charles apartment early yesterday.

Antoine, 28, was the owner of the Antoine Kennel, which specialized in
blue-nose breeds of pit bulls.

Several people who live on Charon St. said they knew Antoine as Chad,
a name listed as his alias in police records.

Most said they also knew Antoine because it was hard to not notice him
when he was walking his pit bull.

"The thing was huge and scary. I ran away from it (on Tuesday) while
Chad was walking it," said a teenage girl who lives in the apartment
building next to the one where Antoine was killed.

The dog was also hurt, probably when Antoine was shot, police
say.

By the time they arrived Antoine was dead and his pit bull was so
badly injured it had to be put down.

Residents in the building said they heard shouting and at least two
shots around 1 a.m.

"What we know is that the suspect showed up at his apartment and there
was a discussion followed by an altercation and then shots," said
Commander Richard Dupuis, head of the major crimes division.

"We believe it is a murder related to territory for drug
trafficking."

Dupuis speculated that Antoine probably knew his killer.

"He was streetwise and wouldn't have opened his door at that hour
unless he knew the person," Dupuis said, adding investigators have yet
to find a witness who could describe the shooter.

Antoine's girlfriend and her children were sleeping in the apartment
at the time. She awoke when the shots were fired, and called 911.

Antoine's criminal record in Quebec Court includes no convictions for
drug trafficking.

On Jan. 16, he received a suspended sentence of three years' probation
after pleading guilty to mischief and uttering threats.

He had other convictions for breaking and entering and
robbery.

Drug trafficking is also believed to be the motive behind another
fatal shooting in the Point last year.

Alexandre Desmarais was killed on April 1, 2005, at the corner of Ash
Ave. and Favard St. Desmarais was a convicted drug trafficker, but
police believe a man who was standing next to him at the time was the
actual target in the shooting.

A few hours later in the same neighbourhood, two men died, apparently
from smoke inhalation, after a small fire broke out in an apartment on
Reading St.