Towards midnight this past Saturday (17/02/2024) Brandon Jean Celestin headed towards his Mercedes in a parking lot situated close to the intersection of Montreal’s well-known Saint Denis Street and Bellechase Avenue in the Little Italy sector of Montreal. Before Celestin could make it to his car, the gunmen unloaded on the 28-year-old man, hitting him around 20 times and firing around 30 shots.
Brandon Jean Celestin was last photographed by media attending Gregory ‘Picasso’ Woolley’s funeral, proudly smiling for the camera. He was attending the ceremony with his brother Jean-Philippe Celestin, who holds the position as a leader of a street gang affiliated to the now deceased Woolley. Not only is his brother involved in Montreal’s criminal underworld, but his cousin Steven Celestin was shot dead in a bar located in the Mile End of Montreal.
Steven Celestin, 23 at the time, was murdered on June 7th of 2014 at the Cabaret du Mile End. The murder was believed to have been the result in a street gang disagreement. 27 year old Moise Regino Magloire and 28 year old Wilphix Gourdet-Laverdure entered a party which was happening at the Cabaret. Magloire did have past convictions, pleading guilty to armed robbery in 2015, but Laverdure’s record was clean. Authorities had gotten this lead in 2017, three years after the murder happened.
A shootout between the two parties had occurred in which Steven Celestin was struck in the head with a bullet at the bar located on Park Avenue, where a Haitian party was taking place. Police later stated that Laverdure had only shot towards the ceiling. The killer in Steven Celestin’s death was Magloire. Laverdure had only been charged with carrying a handgun and using a firearm in a negligent manner. Laverdure and Magloire were suspected to be representing ‘Red’ themed street gangs while Steven Celestin and his cousin Jean-Philippe represented ‘Blue’ themed street gangs.
Authorities feared that there would be a hit placed in retaliation. They were right, 3 months later, on September 7th, Laverdure`s brother, Dominique Laverdure, who was 19 at the time, was murdered in the parking lot of a wedding reception. He laid lifeless next to his luxury car by the time emergency services arrived at the scene. He was declared dead at the hospital.
His brother, Jean-Philippe Celestin, had his residence in Rosemere searched by the authorities a few weeks after Gregory Woolley’s death at the end of last year. In 2012, he faced charges of attempted murder following an assault he partook in at a Montreal bar. He was also convicted in 2015, in a major police sweep named ‘Project Magot-Mastiff’. Jean-Philippe Celestin gained his entry to the big leagues in the early 2000’s, when he was a member of a street gang named the K-Crew.
In the weeks before the Brandon Celestin’s murder, Jean-Philippe Celestin would be seen in numerous locations around Montreal in the presence of numerous bodyguards. Jean-Philippe was with Brandon Jean moments before he was gunned down, in a restaurant where Jean-Philippe conducted the majority of his business.
Brandon Celestin was not as influential as his brother, but in recent years, he was climbing the echelons in Montreal’s underworld, implicating himself in drug trafficking rings throughout Montreal and Chateauguay. He wasn`t well known to police, except for officers in one particular police squad titled Eclipse, but he was definitely gaining notoriety throughout the city.
This didn`t mean he had a clean slate. He was accused of assault and uttering threats to a police officer in 2022. He was also acquitted in 2019 for armed assault.
This marks the 6th murder of the year in Montreal. The motive to Brandon Celestin’s murder is unclear at this point. We can only speculate that it might have had something to do with former hitman turned informant, Frederick Silva, spilling underworld secrets to the police. Media is also speculating that violence in the city might possibly be on the rise after Gregory Woolley’s death in November of last year.
