POLICE INVESTIGATING LATEST BIKER MURDER FOR LINK TO SAME-DAY KILLING
OF HELLS' ASSOCIATE

MONTREAL (CP) - Fears of another round of bloody Quebec biker-gang
violence have been raised after the body of a man linked to the Rock
Machine biker gang was found in a campground, just hours after a rival
Hells Angels associate was gunned down in a city restaurant.

"We're obviously going to examine the murders to see if they're
linked," Pierre Robichaud, a provincial police spokesman, said Saturday.

"But we can't establish a link yet because we have no
suspect."

Late Friday night, police found Martin Bourget, 35, shot dead near a
picnic table in a campground in Granby, east of Montreal.

Witnesses had reported seeing a man running through the park being
chased by a gunman.

A discarded machine gun and burned Jeep were also found near the scene
- - a typical trademark of biker gangs seeking to destroy evidence after
a hit.

Bourget was associated with the Rock Machine, a biker gang involved in
a bloody war against the Hells Angels over control of Quebec's drug
trade, police said.

"Whether (Bourget) was a close associate or not, we don't know yet,"
said police spokeswoman Isabelle Gendron.

"We don't have many details about him right now but we know he was
linked to the gang."

Earlier Friday, two masked men calmly entered a Montreal restaurant
and gunned down Robert (Bob) Savard, 49, a loan shark and close friend
of Hells Angels leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher.

Seriously injured under the hail of gunfire was Savard's companion,
Normand Descoteaux. A waitress was also hit in the leg by a stray bullet.

Criminal-gang experts immediately predicted more bloodshed would
follow.

"There will be more violence," RCMP Staff Sgt. Jean-Pierre Levesque
said after Savard's murder. "There's no doubt."

Montreal police Cmdr. Andre Bouchard agreed there would be more
deaths, predicting the violence would only stop "when one team has all
the marbles."

Bouchard also decried the increasing boldness of the latest killings,
both in unlikely settings.

The recurring feud has heated up in recent months, with several
shootings, prison riots and disappearances.

At least four of Boucher's close associates have disappeared or been
killed in the past three months, including his right-hand man, Normand
(Biff) Hamel, who was shot dead April 17 in a suburban parking lot.

Several bystanders have also been injured or killed in the crossfire,
most notably an 11-year-old boy who was struck down by shrapnel when a
car bomb exploded in a residential Montreal neighbourhood in 1995.

The biker war has killed about 140 people in Quebec since 1994, and
police blame organized crime for half of the 30 murders committed in
Montreal this year.

The Rock Machine has also opened two new chapters in Ontario, Levesque
said.