The Assassination Of Lil Bentley
In the wee hours of July 17th, 2025, nearly three months ago, a Montreal rapper by the name of ‘Lil Bentley’ was shot to death near Entrance 3 of Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall in North York. A crime scene was soon established, with journalists snapping pictures of Toronto Police Service working the crime scene that was left in front of the Indigo book store. The incident took place towards 6:13am. While Lil Bentley had been lingering around Entrance No. 3 waiting for a rideshare to get back to Montreal, three individuals had come up to the 28-year-old man and opened fire nearly a dozen times.
Lil Bentley’s real name is Kashif Jamal Bentley-Jean; and he has ties to Zone 43, a Blood set based out of the Montreal-North borough of the island. Surprisingly, Zone 43 has ties all the way to Western Canada, having active members in Vancouver, all the while claiming the Montreal-North borough as their stomping grounds. Bentley-Jean had also been particularly active in Ontario.
Once emergency services arrived on scene, they found Bentley-Jean suffering from gunshot wounds near Entrance 3 of the mall. They proceeded to attempt reanimation techniques on the man, to no avail. After their attempts, they noted the time of his death. It is unclear whether Lil Bentley had already been deceased at the time of emergency services’ arrival or succumbed to his bullet wounds after the fact. According to Ontario authorities, this had been a targeted hit. The perpetrators of this murder had left the scene before police arrived. Police believe the homicide was a retaliatory hit for a separate murder which occurred only two week prior.
Factors Leading Up To Lil Bentley’s Death
Kashif Jamal ‘Lil Bentley’ Bentley-Jean had previously been a member of a gang located to the West of Montreal. It is said that Lil Bentley had a falling out with a prominent Rollin’ 90s member. This occurred when Lil Bentley and other individuals had kidnapped a member of the Rollin’ 90s and stuffed the victim in the trunk of a vehicle. Rollin’ 90s are a Crip set located on the West island of Montreal.
In April of 2023, Lil Bentley was incarcerated at Bordeaux. Individuals had assaulted Lil Bentley in retaliation to this event. There are rumours that the group of people who assaulted Bentley in prison may be members of Rollin’ 90s, although this may be false. This whole kerfuffle urged Lil Bentley to create his own gang, simply titled ‘A1’; a Blood set with ties to Zone 43. A1 is not only active in Montreal, but also Toronto.
It’s unclear whether Lil Bentley was a member of Zone 43 or just had close ties to the gang. There had been a lot of mixed feelings from Zone 43 surrounding Lil Bentley. This ultimately led to the fact that this shooting was an internal affair within the gang. Stemming from an earlier shooting that same month; the murder of Cedrick ‘Ballout’ Belizare.
Cedrick ‘Ballout’ Belizaire was a member of Zone 43’s ‘Pop Team’; a subgroup of the North East Blood set. He had been sentenced in a pimping case previously. Allegedly, a video leaked on Telegram of Bentley and Belizaire fighting while both serving a sentence at Bordeaux. This had set a sort of tension between the relation of these two men. On July 2nd, 2025, a birthday party was held on a boat. The party was for a prominent member of Zone 43. Among the people who attended the party were Lil Bentley and Cedrick Belizaire. A recipe for disaster.
An altercation happened between the two men while celebrating out on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Belizaire had allegedly slapped Lil Bentley. When the boat came back to the shore, at around 11pm that night, a brawl broke out. Lil Bentley then went to grab a gun from his car and shot Belizaire in a Brossard park. Once the SPAL (Longueuil Police Service) had arrived at the scene, they rushed him to the hospital where the 27-year-old Belizaire later passed away. Police interrogated several witnesses after the fact, but no arrests were made.
Bentley-Jean’s murder is suspected to have been a retaliatory hit for the murder of Cedrick ‘Ballout’ Belizaire. All the pieces of the puzzle manage to line up when it comes to that hypothesis. Lil Bentley’s fate was determined upon him “allegedly” pointing his pistol towards Belizaire and ultimately killing the man. We put emphasis on the ‘allegedly’ as this has never been proven in court due to everyone playing their part and keeping their mouth shut.
Suspects Charged
The first arrest throughout the murder investigation on Bentley-Jean came on August 4th, 2025. Bradley Nicolas-Lucate, a 20-year-old man was arrested in the Chomedey borough of Laval. The SPL (Laval Police Service) had stumbled across the man through a traffic stop. A woman was driving while Nicolas-Lucate was seated in the passenger side of the vehicle. His name rang red lights in the system, as he was federally wanted across Canada for the murder of Bentley-Jean.
During this traffic stop, Nicolas-Lucate attempted to flee, being apprehended quickly. A simple traffic stop devolved into a search where officers had found a loaded handgun tucked in Nicolas-Lucate’s attire. False IDs and stolen credit cards had also been found in his possession. He is currently being held without bail and will appear in an Ontario court to battle a charge of first-degree murder.
The two other suspects sought in the Bentley-Jean homicide investigation are 28-year-old Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent and 23-year-old Bryan Emmanuel Fuentes-Gramajo. Fuentes-Gramajo is known under the alias of ‘Loko’ or ‘Kartel’. On October 8th, 2025, Canada’s BOLO program listed Bryan Fuentes-Gramajo as their number one on their ‘Top 25’ list, offering 100,000$ for any information leading to his arrest. This reward is available until June 9th, 2026. Surprisingly, Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent is not listed on BOLO’s website.
Bryan Fuentes-Gramajo was known to police after being sentenced in 2021 for being in possession of a loaded firearm. A polymer Glock type of handgun with no serial number. loaded with a clip containing seven bullets. He was held without bail.
Even earlier in his career he was arrested while hanging out with a member of the Chomedey 45 or Cho45; a street gang based out of the Chomedey borough of Laval. Throughout the investigation and court proceedings is when we learn that Fuentes-Gramajo was acquainted with Zone 43. Fuentes-Gramajo grew up in Longueuil, on the South Shore of the island of Montreal. Sources believe he has taken refuge somewhere in British Columbia, more specifically in Vancouver.
While Bryan Fuentes-Gramajo is a member of Montreal-North’s Zone 43, Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent claims ’26’ as his set. It’s important to note that the 26 Gang and Zone 43 are in alliance with each other. We’ve written about an ongoing strife between the 26 Gang and the 24 Gang in the past. Rapper Christopher Shawn ‘Dirty S’ Jean Vilsaint, who was murdered walking to a recording studio on May 14th, 2024, also claimed ’26 Gang’. One of Jean Vilsaint’s assailants, Dylan Denis, a 24 Gang member, is listed as number 5 on BOLO’s Top 25 Most Wanted.
Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent has a malicious reputation on the streets. His cousin, Nitchell ‘Crank’ Lapaix was murdered outside the Crazy Moon strip club in Laval on August 17th, 2021. One of the two assailants who shot him was none other than Sylvain ‘Haboub’ Kabbouchi; a leader of Arab Power who was murdered in prison this summer. It is said that Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent is a renowned hitman on the streets of Eastern Canada, not taking any contracts under 75,000$. We have no evidence of facts to verify this rumor.
Some say that Jimmy ‘Devil’ Prudent had actually been close to Bentley-Jean. Which makes this situation even more confusing given the fact that Prudent had set a trap which ultimately led to Lil Bentley getting murdered on the 17th of July. Prudent had allegedly known the exact itinerary of the carpool Bentley-Jean would be taking back to Montreal on that fateful day.
Prudent would stop showing up to his court dates, where he was battling several charges including assault, domestic violence, impaired driving and partaking in the sale of stolen goods. He has been missing ever since. Sources say he might possibly be hiding out somewhere between Alberta and Manitoba.
The story of Lil Bentley may seem complex, but essentially boils down to a classic story of revenge. Lil Bentley had killed a fellow Zone 43 member as the result of a dispute that took place between the two individuals. Some members of Zone 43 took offence to that and decided to take their revenge by murdering Kashif Jamal ‘Lil Bentley’ Bentley-Jean. The classic case of an eye for an eye.
